Welcome

My name is Katharina Harf, Co-founder and Executive Vice President of DKMS Americas.

Like many of you reading this, my life has been personally touched by leukemia. At the young age of fourteen, I lost my mother, Mechtild, to this life-threatening disease. She was in need of a bone marrow transplant and the search for a life-saving donor seemed hopeless because, at the time, there were only 3,000 unrelated donors available in Germany.

My father, Peter Harf, started DKMS in Germany in 1991 to find a bone marrow donor for my mother. Sadly, she lost her battle. After my mother’s death, he continued the fight by recruiting more bone marrow donors to help save the lives of other leukemia patients.

In 2004, I founded DKMS Americas with my father and since then I have made it my goal in life to help other leukemia patients, so no family has to go through the same pain we did.

The DKMS mission is to save lives by recruiting bone marrow donors for leukemia patients. More than 20,000 DKMS donors have helped save lives by donating their bone marrow.

Please join me in the fight against leukemia. Become a bone marrow donor. Someone's life depends on you.

Katharina Harf
Co-founder and Executive Vice President, DKMS Americas