Bone marrow permission

Two Fijian sisters have been given permission by the New Zealand Government to come here for a month to help their sick brother undergo a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

Nanise and Mereoni Namatalevu have been trying to get permission to travel to New Zealand to donate bone marrow for their brother Osea, who is studying here on a scholarship, the Fiji Times reported.

New Zealand's Acting High Commissioner to Fiji, Caroline McDonald, said the sisters' initial applications to enter New Zealand were blocked by the visa ban instituted following the military coup in 2006.