We would like to congratulate Simone Jensen from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney on being awarded a Sylvia Hartog Scholarship to attend the Asia Pacific Blood and Marrow Transplantation Group (APBMT) meeting in Singapore. Simone is a highly skilled and long-serving nurse, and has been invited by the APBMT scientific committee as a guest speaker to present on prehabilitation for bone marrow and stem cell transplant.

Prehabilitation is an important part of supportive care for bone marrow and stem cell transplant recipients. It takes place between diagnosis and the time of transplant, and is a program for helping transplant recipients be as physically, emotionally, and psychologically prepared for transplant as they can be. Simone’s presentation at the APBMT scientific meeting in Singapore will be an opportunity to showcase the work of St Vincent’s Hospital in this area, and for Simone to learn from her colleagues across the Asia Pacific region.

Simone is a Clinical Nurse Consultant and the Stem Cell and Bone Marrow Transplant Coordinator at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney. She has been nursing for over 30 years and this will be her first time receiving a scholarship from Arrow.

Simone says, “I am very grateful to Arrow for the generous donation received through the Sylvia Hartog Scholarship, to be able to travel to Singapore to attend Asia Pacific BMT Meeting in October. I am looking forward to representing St Vincent’s, while sharing knowledge and experiences with international colleagues and then returning to share information gained from attending the conference with colleagues across the St Vincent’s cancer network.  The knowledge gained will enable me to enhance the care provided to bone marrow transplant patients, their families and the unrelated donors who we care for through their remarkable gift.”

The scholarship provided by Arrow will fund Simone’s flights, travel and accommodation costs to attend the conference in Singapore. This scholarship is funded by the family of Sylvia Hartog, who offers this opportunity each year to nurses from the St Vincent’s Hospital Haematology ward in recognition of the exceptional care they provided to Sylvia following her bone marrow transplant.