In 2025, the QBE Foundation gave The TLR Foundation a grant that changed how we reach people. It funded a complete rebuild of our website, helping us connect with thousands more potential donors online, and the impact has been real. More than 300 people have since signed up to the Aussie stem cell donor registry through the TLR site. Seven of those donors have already come up as potential matches, and two have actually donated their stem cells.
To put that in perspective, most people who join the registry never get called. The odds of being matched are genuinely low. So for two TLR signups to have already donated means something real is happening here. It means the right people are finding us, and what we’re doing is working.
Here’s how it happened.
What the grant made possible
Before the rebuild, TLR’s website served us well for where we were at the time. But as the charity grew and the content expanded, we needed a site that could do more. We needed it to share real stories from real people who’ve donated stem cells, and make the path from “I’m curious about this” to “I’ve signed up” as clear as possible. Most people who register as stem cell donors never get called. The ones who get that call and say yes are genuine legends.
The QBE Foundation’s grant let us do exactly that. We designed the new site around the people TLR exists for: Australians aged 18 to 35 who want to help someone facing blood cancer but don’t know where to start. That meant making everything clearer. What stem cell donation actually involves. How the matching process works. What happens on donation day and how long recovery takes. The kind of information that answers the real questions people have when they’re trying to decide whether this is something they could do.
Real stories from real donors
The rebuild also gave TLR’s donor stories proper space, and those stories have been one of the biggest drivers of new signups.
Abbey donating stem cells for her mum
Abbey donated stem cells to her mum at the Kinghorn Cancer Centre. Josh spoke honestly about the process and the side effects he experienced. Aadil’s story reached Sri Lankan communities where many people had never heard of stem cell donation. Mitch described what it felt like to know his stem cells were on their way to someone he’d never met. These aren’t polished marketing pieces. They’re real people describing what it was actually like, and they’ve made a measurable difference to how many people register.
The site also covers TLR’s nursing scholarships and the role they play in supporting nurses who care for people facing blood cancer. When Kirstie, one of our scholarship recipients, joined the Aussie stem cell donor registry at a World Blood Cancer Day donor drive, it showed that the people closest to this work are stepping up too.
More than 500 signups and why that matters
TLR has now passed 500 online signups through our partner page with Stem Cell Donors Australia. Students, young professionals, nurses, hospital staff. People who came to the site, read the information, and thought “yeah, I can do that.” Many of them had never heard of stem cell donation before they found a TLR page.
Aadil making stem cell donation look easy
Here’s why 500 matters. The Aussie stem cell donor registry has around 190,000 donors. That sounds like a lot until you understand how matching works. Donors and patients need to share specific tissue types, and for some patients, especially those from diverse ethnic backgrounds, the odds of finding a match are painfully low. Every single new donor genuinely shifts those odds for someone searching.
The website didn’t just make information easier to find. It gave people a reason to act on it.
Why this kind of support matters for TLR
TLR is a small foundation with a big purpose. We exist because of Trace Richey, the man whose experience inspired The TLR Foundation. Trace had his transplant, but he didn’t have the right donor. Everything we do, from growing the registry to funding nursing scholarships, comes back to making sure more people have a better chance than Trace did. That means getting the right people to sign up. People who understand what they’re committing to, and who won’t back out if they get that call.
Grants like the one from the QBE Foundation don’t just help with one project. They change what a small charity like TLR can do next. The website rebuild gave TLR a platform that works harder, reaches further, and turns interest into action. It’s the foundation for everything we’re building from here.
We’re deeply grateful to the QBE Foundation. Their support helped TLR grow at a point when it mattered most.
You can be part of it
That’s what the TLR website is built to do. Talk to the people we need to reach in plain and simple language. No fluff. Real stories from authentic people who’ve been through it. And a clear path to signing up.
If you’re aged 18 to 35, you can join the Aussie stem cell donor registry with a simple cheek swab. They mail a kit to your door, you swab, you post it back. Most people who register will never get the call, but if you do, you could be the only match for someone who needs a transplant.
Sign up through the TLR Foundation’s partner page.
Be a legend. Save a life.