Meet Luke Chapman, or Chappo, as he is better known by his mates. Luke had his life turned upside down in 2020 when he was diagnosed with leukaemia, going from diagnosis to treatment in just a matter of days.

Being thrust into a new world of leukaemia, as well as a physical move from one side of the world to the other with a relocation from England back home to Australia for treatment, things moved quickly for Luke.

Fortunately Luke’s sister was able to be matched as a stem cell transplant donor enabling Luke to receive a life saving transplant to fight the disease.

Two years on, Luke is doing well recovering from his treatment while continuing to manage the side effects.

Having had his eyes opened up to the realities of those faced by living with blood cancers, Luke and his mates from around the world, created the “Leukathon”, a global effort to bring much needed awareness and fundraising to support leukaemia and blood cancer patients.

This year the Leukathon included a group swimming and cycling event from London to Paris. A grueling adventure that Luke this year was able to participate in, the Leukathon provided those involved with the opportunity to experience a bit of pain in solidarity for those who don’t get to choose.

Raising an astounding $106,864 in donations from Luke’s united force of family and friends, the Leukathon team generously chose to donate its hard earned funds to Arrow’s medical research programs and have made a three year commitment to continue its support.

Specifically, the funding will be used to support the second phase of an important medical research program being undertaken by Luke’s treating doctor, Dr John Moore, and his team from the Haematology Department in St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney.

The research focuses on improving the success of haploidentical allogeneic stem cell transplants, being those transplants where a sibling or matched unrelated donor does not exist for the patient. Haploidentical donors share a “half” Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) match with their family members and with further research could provide a successful treatment option for the 70% of patients per year who require a stem cell transplant but do not have a sibling match.

The first phase of this project was funded by Arrow in 2015 and saw encouraging results and improvements in survival rates for haploidentical transplant patients. Moving into the second phase of the project the trial seeks to evaluate the safety and efficacy of changes to the drug regime based on data obtained to further improve patient outcomes.

Though Luke was fortunate to have a stem cell match with his sister, Luke appreciates that this is not always the case for everyone and is passionate in supporting this important medical research.

Luke is also a strong advocate for blood and stem cell donations and encourages everyone to donate where they can to expand the unrelated donor pool and provide more patients with a fighting chance.

The Leukathon’s outstanding commitment to improving the lives of those with blood cancers is commended and we thank Luke Chapman and his team wholeheartedly for their support of Arrow and transplant medical research.