Our History
The Sunflower Fund Became DKMS Africa
DKMS Africa is a leading stem cell donor recruitment and patient advocacy organisation dedicated to giving patients with blood cancer and blood disorders a second chance at life through stem cell transplantation.
Established through the integration of The Sunflower Fund and the global expertise of DKMS, DKMS Africa was born to address one of the greatest challenges in stem cell transplantation: increasing access to a diverse pool of potential stem cell donors across South Africa and the African continent.
For more than two decades, The Sunflower Fund laid the foundation for stem cell donor recruitment, while DKMS built one of the world’s largest stem cell donor networks. Their journeys began on different continents but were driven by the same belief: every patient deserves the chance to find a matching donor. That is why, long before DKMS Africa existed, the seeds of that shared mission had already been planted.
The Beginning of Hope
The story begins in 1999 when The Sunflower Fund was established following the courageous journeys of two young South Africans, Darren Serebro and Chris Corlett, both diagnosed with leukaemia. During his treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), Chris painted a piece of artwork called Sunflowers of Hope, which later inspired the organisation’s name. Founded by Chris’s mother, Tina Botha, The Sunflower Fund had a simple but powerful purpose: help patients find life-saving stem cell donors while raising awareness about blood cancers and blood disorders. At the time, stem cell transplantation was not well understood. Public awareness of blood cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma, and aplastic anaemia, as well as blood disorders including sickle cell disease, was limited. Many South Africans were unaware that a complete stranger could one day save a person’s life through stem cell donation.
Over the next two decades, The Sunflower Fund became South Africa’s leading voice in stem cell donor recruitment, helping thousands of patients begin the search for a matching donor while steadily growing a registry that reflected the country’s diversity. As the registry grew, so did the understanding of another challenge: finding a stem cell donor is far more complex than matching blood groups.
A Shared Mission Across Continents
Nearly a decade before The Sunflower Fund was founded, DKMS was established in Germany after Mechtild Harf was diagnosed with leukaemia and urgently needed a stem cell transplant. Her husband, Dr Peter Harf, discovered that only around 3,000 registered stem cell donors were available in Germany at the time. Determined to change that reality, he founded DKMS to grow donor registries and improve access to stem cell transplantation for patients.
Over the following decades, DKMS became the world’s largest stem cell donor organisation, registering millions of potential donors and helping facilitate hundreds of thousands of stem cell donations for patients across the globe. Although they worked on different continents, DKMS and The Sunflower Fund were driven by the same mission.
When Two Missions Became One
In May 2020, The Sunflower Fund and DKMS entered into a partnership that combined local knowledge with global expertise. Together, they set out to strengthen stem cell donor recruitment, expand access to advanced HLA typing, increase the representation of African donors on international registries, and improve the chances of finding matching donors for patients in South Africa, across Africa, and around the world.
The partnership began during the COVID-19 pandemic, when healthcare systems faced unprecedented challenges. Even so, both organisations continued recruiting potential stem cell donors, supporting patients, and strengthening collaboration across borders.
Less than a year later, on 25 March 2021, The Sunflower Fund officially became DKMS Africa, marking the beginning of a new chapter for stem cell donor recruitment across the African continent. The transition was far more than a change of name. By joining the global DKMS network, DKMS Africa combined more than two decades of local experience with international expertise in donor recruitment, advanced HLA typing, laboratory science, and patient support. It also expanded access to one of the world’s largest stem cell donor registries, giving South African and African patients a greater chance of finding a matching donor beyond their own borders.
Today, DKMS Africa continues to grow a diverse stem cell donor registry while supporting patients throughout their transplant journey. The organisation also provides family HLA typing for eligible patients at no cost, where appropriate, to identify potential related donors as early as possible, while ensuring that donor recruitment and tissue typing are carried out according to internationally recognised scientific and quality standards.
