Dear BSBMTCT member,

We hope all is well with you.

We will begin the March newsletter with exactly the same phrase as the previous two: “Undoubtedly, Covid-19 remains our number 1 priority at present.” However, we hope there is now some light at the end of this dark tunnel. Vaccination has been an important part of progress and, as we write, over 30 million have now received their vaccinations in the UK. Moreover, the Government has recently agreed to prioritise adults living with people with blood cancer for a vaccine in England https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-vaccine-advice-for-adults-living-with-adults-who-are-immunosuppressed

We still have important issues to address in our clinically extremely vulnerable patient population. BSBMTCT continues to be part of this great effort, alongside other great initiatives within our UK haemato-oncology and EBMT communities. Our BSBMTCT COVID-19 guidelines continue to be updated, now with regular updates of the vaccination guidelines developed by the Vaccination Sub-committee with the latest update published on March 15th on the website https://bsbmtct.org/bsbmtct-and-covid/. The national multi-speciality OCTAVE Study of immune response post-COVID, vaccination is rapidly becoming activated within the core and other IMPACT centres.

Otherwise, there remains much on the ‘to do’ list…

• As mentioned in the previous bulletin a number of other topics will be addressed in the coming year; workforce, revised BMT indications, delivering accreditation remotely, modernising internal workings of the society and strengthening links with our key partners. All ongoing along with various meetings and events for your diary….
• The next CTC Meeting is on Tuesday 4^th May 11-3pm via Teams, invites will be sent closer to the meeting, we are asking for new proposals to be sent to julia.lee@kcl.ac.uk  4 weeks prior to the meeting. Proposal templates can be found here https://bsbmtct.org/ctc-clinical-trials-committee/
• We will be holding the Annual Scientific Meeting on May 12^th, 2021 and the Education Day on November 3^rd 2021. The first will definitely be ‘virtual’ – the programme is now available and the registration is open https://bsbmtct.org/events/bsbmtct-scientific-day/. Who knows where we’ll be towards the end of the year – however, we will find a way to bring everyone together.
•  The BSBMTCT Registry are preparing for the 12^th Edition of the BSBMTCT Executive Summary of Transplant & Cellular Therapy Outcomes in UK and ROI. We are looking at transplants performed between 2014 and 2019. The deadline to ensure all registrations and follow ups are included is Thursday 1^st April 2021.
• In the next year we will also be looking for replacements for a few of our Executive Committee who will have reached the end of their term of office. We will inform you when these opportunities become available.

We hope that you all stay safe and well, mentally and physically. The BSBMTCT will do its best to maintain high levels of support and direction for our community, and help each other deliver our treatments to our vulnerable patient population as the pandemic moves into the endemic phase.

Our very best wishes,

John Snowden, Kim Orchard, Fiona Dignan, Deborah Richardson, Eduardo Olavarria, & Julia Lee