Stelios Grafakos

Stelios Grafakos was the founding Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit (BMTU) at the Children's Hospital “Agia Sofia,” from its inauguration in 1993 until 2015. It was a program delivered to the National Health System by the Association of Friends of Children with Cancer ELPIDA, with the support of Mrs. Marianna V. Vardinogianni.

The BMTU has provided valuable services to children suffering from life-threatening hematological, neoplastic, and genetic diseases. Boasting exceptional personnel, more than 1,200 children have been transplanted with excellent results, while at the same time it presents remarkable clinical and research work recognized internationally.

The ELPIDA Association, realizing the problem of the lack of voluntary bone marrow donors in Greece, intervened to provide a solution, creating the Bone Marrow Donor Volunteer Bank of the VISION OF HOPE (ORAMA ELPIDAS) Association in 2014. Stelios Grafakos had a crucial role in this effort and was appointed Scientific Director. With a proper and continuous raising of awareness, the society was mobilized and in a period of seven years, more than 120,000 volunteers enrolled in VISION OF HOPE (ORAMA ELPIDAS), which is as of today the largest National Center for Volunteer Donors, offering more than 60 hematopoietic grafts annually in Greece and internationally, at an ever-increasing rate.

Stelios Grafakos worked as a Consultant Pediatric Hematologist at the Hematology Clinic/Bone Marrow Transplant Unit of the Royal Free Hospital London (2004-2005). He was also elected Associate Professor of Pediatric Hematology at the National and Kapodistran University of Athens (2010) and served as Chairman of the Board of the Hellenic Society of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology (1998-2002) and the Hellenic Hematological Society (2009-2010). The scientific course of Stelios Grafakos is a bright proof of the success of the scholarships program and the social contribution of the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, as it essentially assisted to the development of Pediatric Transplants in Greece through the scholarship it granted.