Farnaz Farahbakhsh’s bio
Farnaz Farahbakhsh received her Master’s of Clinical Sciences at the University of Western Ontario. For several years she has been involved as a leader in stem cell donor recruitment in Canada, advocating for patients from diverse ethnic groups who need a blood stem cell transplantation. She is currently leading the Stem Cell Club’s Iranian Donors Save Lives Campaign alongside an engaging team of volunteers to recruit Iranians as potential stem cell donors.
Iranian Donors Save Lives Campaign to Engage Iranian Peoples as Stem Cell Donors
Farnaz Farahbakhsh, Brady Park, Gabriele Jagelaviciute, Elena Kum, Michelle Ho, and Dr. Warren Fingrut
Background: Although allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is a curative therapy for a range of blood diseases, most patients lack a fully matched family donor and require an alternative donor. Patients are more likely to find a matched unrelated donor from within their own ethnic groups. However, Iranians are underrepresented on the worldwide stem cell donor registries (eg. in Canada, making up <0.2% of donors).
Methods: An array of multimedia was developed in collaboration with a team of Iranian-Canadian volunteers and partners to engage the community to donate. Multimedia were reviewed by transplantation experts and members of the Iranian community, then published to stemcellclub.ca/Iranian/.
Results: Multimedia developed included infographics highlighting the racial disparity in access to stem cell donors, WhyWeSwab stories, and videos of patients with Iranian ancestry (mobile.twitter.com/whyweswab; https://youtu.be/zrQH5JVnt2s), testimonials from members of the Iranian community (https://youtu.be/sd9reXoXt4M) and social media influencers (eg.https://www.tiktok.com/@stemcellclub/video/7095913308280130821), physician statements from Iranian Canadians advocating for their communities to register as donors (eg. https://youtu.be/x1eAoRe5C4k, https://www.youtube.com/watch), and Tiktoks featuring Iranian Canadians to target and educate individuals within the Iranian community about the importance of stem cell donation (https://www.tiktok.com/@stemcellclub/video/7096256780807752966, https://www.tiktok.com/@stemcellclub/video/7099958142640934150, https://www.tiktok.com/@stemcellclub/video/7096893023795170565). Multimedia were arranged into a national recruitment campaign, Iranian Donors Save Lives (stemcellclub.ca/Iranian/), and shared by Iranian partners across Canada (eg. Iranian Students Association, Iranian Canadian Foundation).
Conclusion: Multimedia were developed in collaboration with Iranian people to support the recruitment of Iranians as potential donors. We are now evaluating the impact of these multimedia on Iranian potential donors’ knowledge and attitudes towards donation.