Good Samaritans of St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney
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BMT Team with Assoc. Prof. John Moore at St. Vincent’s Hospital (February-June 2015)
This is a partnership that was formed purely through friendship and trust based on the common values of love and compassion. A love that reached out thousands of miles and across oceans to give the needy, the sick and the dying, the most precious gift, ‘the gift of life’.
Four years ago, a team of 16 medical staff from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), arrived in Sydney for a training on Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) at St. Vincent’s Haematology Department. Four years on, NCI has now celebrated their 50th successful Transplant in the presence of Dr. Samuel Milliken, Head of the Haematology Department, St. Vincent’s Hospital Sydney.
In 2013, having seen the struggle of Sri Lankan cancer patients first-hand requiring BMT Procedure, a small group of Sri Lankan-Australians from Canberra and Sydney, decided to take some decisive action. They approached Assoc. Prof. John Moore of St. Vincent’s, seeking advice on the possibility of introducing BMT to Sri Lanka.
The first Transplant at NCI in the presence of Prof. David Ma, Ms. Amanda McLaughlin & Ms. Helen Tao (December 2016)
Prof Moore undertook to canvass this proposal with his St Vincent’s colleagues. Critically, he was able to bring his colleague Prof. David Ma on board to play a major role in the programme. At the time in Sri Lanka some 50 cancer patients were referred every year for BMT, requiring them to travel to India for treatment. Since these costs (AUD 45,000 – AUD 90,000) were unimaginable to most of the patients who were poor, the majority of patients were unable to afford treatment.
Professors John Moore and David Ma visited NCI, Sri Lanka in 2014 for a preliminary assessment on setting up a BMT unit at NCI. Dr. Kanishka Karunaratne, then Director, NCI, committed to allocate two rooms in a modern seven-storey building complex that was already under construction, and provide funding for the equipment. St. Vincent’s Haematology Department committed to provide training for the staff and mentor the programme. Four Endeavour scholarships were secured from the Australian Government.
Furthermore, generous donations from MAS Holdings and Maliban Biscuits of Sri Lanka, and a massive campaign by the small group of Sri Lankan-Australians involving the wider community in Canberra and Sydney helped raise the necessary funds (AUD 96,000) for the remaining 12 members, in a very short time. This allowed the training of the 16 staff from NCI (including four consultants, four medical officers, five nursing staff, two MLT’s and one pharmacist) in Sydney for up to four months.
A comprehensive programme put together by St Vincent’s staff to cater to individual training needs at various levels resulted in an extremely smooth and effective learning outcome. Since their return, Professors Ma and Moore held regular tele-meetings with the BMT team in Sri Lanka, providing them with advice including for preparation of patients for BMT. Consequently, the first ever BMT in the public system in Sri Lanka took place successfully at NCI in December 2016 under the supervision of the St. Vincent’s team.
Since then, the skilled and committed Sri Lankan medical team headed by Dr. Prasad Abeysinghe, has gone on to complete 50 autologous transplants (using the patients’ own stem cells). Now, St Vincent’s team is looking forward to mentoring the Sri Lankan BMT team on performing Allogeneic Transplants (using donor stem cells) in the near future.
Many forms of assistance were also received for this project from the Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Australia S. Skandakumar, the Deputy High Commissioner Mrs. Himalee Arunatillake, former-High Commissioner Admiral Thisara Samarasinghe and the Social club of Australian Public Service Commission.