Long before he entered parliament, Dr Mike Freelander was part of a medical team involved in a bone marrow transplant operation.
But this wasn’t just another bone marrow transplant operation, as Dr Freelander recalled this week when as chair of the federal health committee he welcomed a substantial increase in the number and diversity of bone marrow donors on the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR).
“In 1981, I was involved in the first surviving bone marrow transplant operation at Camperdown Children’s Hospital,’’ Dr Freelander recalled.
“The patient was a little boy from Campbelltown called Robert, who now lives a wonderful life in Macarthur.
“I want his story to be replicated by thousands more Australians needing a bone marrow transplant, which this announcement by the minister for health helps achieves,’’ said the member for Macarthur.
Every 27 minutes in Australia someone will be diagnosed with a blood cancer such as leukemia, myeloma, or lymphoma and many will need a bone marrow transplant.
Australia’s pool for bone marrow donors is small which makes us heavily reliant on overseas supply.
Dr Freelander said that at the recent health ministers meeting all Australian governments agreed to help boost the supply of local bone marrow donations by releasing up to $4.2 million from the Cord Blood Export Revenue (CBER) fund.
This funding will save lives by increasing local bone marrow donor recruitment through more blood testing and cheek swabbing and create a more diverse pool of donors.
“Cheek swabs are a very effective and economical way of bringing additional donors to the registry,’’ Dr Freelander said.
“I thank the minister for health Mark Buter and my committee co-chairs Bob Katter, Dr Monique Ryan, Bert van Manen and Kate Thwaits for their collective efforts on this important matter.”
