Update on Tania Soldo-Murphy – The Australian-Croatian in Search of a Donor

Tania Soldo-Murphy

At the end of last year we wrote about Tania Soldo-Murphy from Adelaide in Australia, who has a rare form of leukemia and is in desperate need of a bone marrow donor to save her life.

Soldo-Murphy, a mother of two, urgently needs a bone marrow transplant to save her life. Despite there being about 28 million people registered on global bone marrow donor registries, there are no compatible donors on the registry for her.

Tania may not have found a donor in part because of her ethnic heritage. Tania, like many Australians, has a mixed ethnicity; her father is from Croatia and her mother’s heritage is from the British Isles (Irish).

Ethnicity is one of the main factors in bone marrow donor matching, but Australia’s (and the world’s) volunteer bone marrow donors do not currently reflect the ethnic diversity of the population.

The ‘Find Tan a Donor’ campaign is asking any person in good general health aged 18–45 and with mixed Croatian-Balkan/Anglo heritage to visit their nearest Blood Donor service centre to register on the Bone Marrow Donor Registry as soon as possible.

There has been a lot of interest since we published the article with many people coming forward wanting to help. A lot of people have been asking for an update on the situation and we spoke to the organisers of the ‘Find Tan a Donor’ campaign.

“Tania went into hospital to start her 4th round of chemo in November and thankfully was well enough to get home and spend Christmas with her gorgeous family. This meant so much to the family as the hospital is over an hour away from home and she only get’s to see her husband and children once a week.”

Tania with her son on Christmas

Due to the chemo Tania has neutropenia (no immunity) so she is currently concentrating on staying healthy and resting as much as she can. She has to be very careful not to be around anyone who is unwell and hence needs to be home-bound most of the time.

Tania with her daughter

No donor has been identified as yet and the worldwide search to find her a donor continues.

“On average it takes approximately 6 weeks for someone’s blood (or saliva if its in the UK/USA) to be tested and the results loaded onto the global registry.”

So the search continues. If you fit the description then visit your nearest Blood Donor service centre to register on the Bone Marrow Donor Registry as soon as possible, or visit the Find Tan a Donor Facebook page.

Share this message to anyone who may be able to help.

Tania with her husband