We’re pleased to announce that five healthcare professionals have received Arrow travel & conference scholarships, sponsored by Jazz Pharmaceuticals Australia, to attend conferences within Australia dedicated to bone marrow and stem cell transplant and cellular therapies.

Congratulations to:

• Maureen O Brien – Donor and Search Clinical Nurse Consultant at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne
• Nicola Roborgh – Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Greenslopes Private Hospital, Queensland
• Peta Edgar – Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Greenslopes Private Hospital, Queensland
• Sharni Dickenson – BMT Clinical Nurse at the Fiona Stanley Hospital, Western Australia
• Siow Teng Chan – Production Supervisor at Monash Health Hudson Cell Therapies

Maureen, Nicola, Peta and Sharni will all be attending the upcoming Australia and New Zealand Transplant and Cellular Therapy (ANZTCT) conference, held on the Gold Coast in Queensland in August 2025. This conference is an excellent collaboration of a diverse group of transplant health professionals from Australia and overseas, coming together to share their expert knowledge and experiences. Now in its third year, we are honored to assist nurses in attending this exceptional conference.

Also in August 2025, Siow Teng will be attending the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT) Conference in Sydney, to help further her knowledge as a healthcare scientist in the bone marrow transplant field.

Supporting Dedicated Patient Care

We care greatly here at Arrow about improving outcomes for patients receiving bone marrow and stem cell transplants, and new treatments like CAR T-cell therapies, too. One of the best ways we’ve found to do that is to support the people who support the patients: our nurses, allied health care professionals, and researchers.

We know that when we help health care professionals and researchers further their careers, that we are helping not just each individual scholarship recipient, but the transplant community as a whole, including patients.

This is especially true, when we support people like Maureen who has extraordinary experience in the bone marrow and stem cell transplant field, and has supported countless patients through their treatment. Maureen has been working for 25 years in haematology nursing and finds her patients the most rewarding group to care for her.

Maureen’s supervisor, Danielle Lee from Alfred Health shared, “Maureen demonstrates a strong commitment and dedication to the care and support of patients undergoing stem cell transplantation, ensuring the highest standards of clinical practice and compassionate care. She is continually seeking to expand her knowledge which greatly benefits her patients and colleagues alike. Maureen’s extensive experience and her ongoing commitment to excellence in her role make her an outstanding candidate for this sponsorship.”

Arrow Making it Possible

The commitment these applicants show to both their patients and their colleagues is impressive, and for many of them financial support from Arrow is the only way they would be able to attend these significant conferences and scientific meetings.

Particularly for nurse such as Sharni, who finds living in Perth, can make the additional expenses of flights and accommodation a barrier to attending conferences frequently held on the eastern side of the country.

Sharni who works at Fiona Stanley Hospital said, “Thank you to Arrow and its sponsors for the opportunity to attend the 2025 ANZTCT ASM. Being part of a very small (outpatient) nursing team in WA’s only allogeneic transplant centre, events like the ANZTCT ASM mean that I can learn from, report back and collaborate with Australia’s leading transplant experts and ensure the most current and relevant practices are available to the patients in our care. Without the support from Arrow I would not be able to attend this event.”

Supporting Quality in Transplant Care

The ANZTCT Annual Scientific Meeting, which four of the candidates we have supported will be attending this year, is a wonderful conference that brings together transplant and cell therapy healthcare professionals from diverse disciplines including nursing, data and quality management.

Peta attended the conference last year and described it as “enlightening and informative”. She job shares her role as a Clinical Nurse Specialist with her colleague Nicola at Greenslopes Private Hospital in Queensland, and both are looking forward to attending the conference together this year.

Nicola says “My fellow Clinical Nurse Specialist Peta Edgar participated in the conference last year and brought back some very helpful insights and learnings for our role co-ordinating the Greenslopes Private Hospital Apheresis and Transplant Service. This opportunity [to attend the 2025 meeting] will provide me with up-to-date transplantation and data management knowledge, as well as the ability to make connections with other clinicians throughout Australia who have similar roles.”

Peta and Nicola coordinate autologous transplants, predominantly for patients with lymphoma and multiple myeloma. They are responsible for the education, coordination, support and follow up of transplant patients, as well as data management and reporting to ANZTCT.

With over 25 years’ experience in haematology nursing, Peta was involved in the initial setup of the apheresis/transplant department at Greenslopes and in obtaining the hospital’s first accreditation. Now, maintaining that NATA accreditation and making sure they continue to meet National Pathology Accreditation Advisory Council (NPAAC) standards is a large part of their role alongside patient care.

Nicola is keen to learn more about quality accreditations and build her experience in this area and says that the conference will enable the “facilitation of the sharing of best practice which is invaluable to the ongoing delivery of an exceptional transplant service.”

Both Peta and Nicola are highly experienced transplant professionals with a passion for patient care and improving the quality of their service. As Peta says, “I pride myself on giving the best care to my patients and their families and also working closely with our entire health care team to provide the most holistic support we can, whilst our patients are living through one of the most stressful and scary times in their lives.”

Supporting Scientific Talent

Siow Teng plays a different but equally important role in the delivery of bone marrow and stem cell transplant, not at the bedside, but behind the scenes as a scientist in a Production Supervisor role at Hudson Cell Therapies. She is looking forward to attending the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT) Conference where she plans to gain a better understanding of advanced cell therapies.

Siow Teng is passionate about understanding the latest research and innovative therapies to better serve patients. She has a strong interest in clinical research and in driving improvements in operational processes. Siow Teng comes well recommended, with glowing references from her supervisors: “I believe Siow Teng has immense potential, and I would like to support her grow in her current career in the field of cellular therapies and bone marrow transplants”.

Siow Teng shared her gratitude for the opportunity “I’m truly grateful to Arrow Bone Marrow Transplant Foundation and Jazz Pharmaceuticals for investing in early career healthcare professional development and advancing the future of bone marrow cellular therapy,” and that receiving this scholarship “has provided and invaluable opportunity…to share our work, gain exposure to cutting edge advances in cell and gene therapy and connect with world leaders.”

Arrow is proud to support activities that help our frontline healthcare professionals provide the best quality care to transplant and cellular therapy patients possible.

We wish each of our scholarship recipients the best with their career development, and we know that our scholarships will make a difference not just to these five transplant professionals, but also to the teams they work with, and ultimately the bone marrow and stem cell transplant patients they care for.

Thank you to Jazz Pharmaceuticals Australia for your ongoing support of our travel scholarships program.