A big part of what we do here at Arrow is help build a strong community of support around bone marrow transplant patients. One of the ways we do that is to help BMT nurses attend conferences where they can learn from and with their colleagues around the world. We recently awarded Babita Khanal from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney the Shaun Rosen Scholarship to help fund her attendance at the International Myeloma Society (IMS) meeting in Greece.

The four-day conference held in September this year, covered a range of topics related to myeloma care and treatment, with a range of symposia, exhibitions and presentations. The highlight for Babita was learning about managing myeloma in an ageing population. Myeloma occurs most commonly in people over 60 years of age, with the average age at diagnosis around 70, so this is a particularly relevant topic for Australian nurses with our ageing population.

Also of interest were discussions around CAR-T cell therapy which Babita says “seems like a game changer in the world of myeloma.” Babita also enjoyed the opportunity to meet with other extraordinary health professionals from Australia in a networking dinner organised for her Australian counterparts at a famous restaurant in Monasteryaki Square overlooking the Acropolis.

Babita says, “I am grateful for the opportunity [to attend the International Myeloma Society meeting] and I look forward to sharing my knowledge with my colleagues. I hope to continue to contribute and be part of my patients’ myeloma journey to help assist them with their needs. Attending conferences like this highlights the importance of the work we do and the impact we make in people’s lives.”

We couldn’t agree more with that sentiment. If you are a nurse working in haematology and specifically bone marrow transplant care, you may be interested in applying for one of our nurse scholarships, too.