Author: Pamela Bousejean
Last Friday I traveled to Melbourne to meet with Anthony (National Executive Officer) and Lauren (Project Manager) from the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry. I had been communicating with the ABMDR in the past via email and phone and this was my first face-to-face meeting. I was very excited at the chance to meet with them because I had so many questions I've been wanting to ask and lots of information I wanted to find out for quite some time now!
Anthony and Lauren were lovely and we chatted for quite a long time about where the ABMDR is currently at and where it is heading into the future. It was great to see that we both had very common goals of what we want to achieve and we were able to find out a bit more about one another's organisations. Overall I was pleased with how the meeting went and I am hoping it is the first of many. I may try and squeeze in a trip to Sydney in the coming months to visit the ABMDR (they are based in Sydney) before I head overseas for a long awaited holiday (I plan to also start up dialogue again with the Lebanese government while I'm there about the Lebanese Bone Marrow Donor Registry)! I also have another meeting planned with a local MP in Geelong, there are many strategies that government can undertake to improve the current situation which I plan to highlight. It's going to be crucial to have the different state and federal governments communicating with one another for the changes to occur so I am going to continue lobbying government and highlight the importance of this cause.
I encourage Ur the Cure supporters to really start getting behind the cause at this point while I am lobbying government. An easy way to show your support is to like the Facebook page (and share with your friends to encourage them to like it as well). I am also thinking about creating some type of petition. People power is a great thing and I think what Ur the Cure puts forward to government can be backed up by others who believe and want the same thing - Ur the Cure is advocating on behalf of patients, their families and anyone else who is interested in the cause, but our voices are much more powerful together!