Karine Tshgnavoryan would have never known that only she could have helped save the life of her brother in Australia, if in the early days of 2016 the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry had not started to look for a stem cell donor match in Armenia.
Since the patient in Australia was of Armenian descent, the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry contacted ABMDR, requesting us to try to find a local donor match. ABMDR staff identified Karine as a match, notified their colleagues in Australia and went on to collect stem cells from her in our own Harvesting Center in Yerevan. The harvested stem cells were immediately shipped to Australia, and the patient (Karine’s brother) received the transplant.
