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Story #14 of 50 days, 50 Stories Campaign
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Awareness camps on Blood Stem Cell Donation are picking pace in India. DATRI is the Largest Blood Stem Cells Donors Registry in India, we have over 4.62 lakhs registered donors as of July 2021. We have conducted awareness and registration camps across India in all the major states, small towns, and even some of the remotest villages. Out of these donors, over 844+ matched donors, from different walks and professions, have donated their Blood Stem Cells to try and save blood disorder patients.
The probability to find a matched Blood Stem Cell Donor within the family is only 25%. To find a matched unrelated donor is extremely rare. It is one in ten thousand to one in a million, owning to the population and various ethnic origins.
It is very important that each one of us who signs up as a Voluntary Blood Stem Cells Donor has a mindset to donate when registering itself. Having conducted multiple awareness sessions incorporates, universities, blood donation camps, etc, for the past five years, I have observed that a lot of people come forward to register under the pressure of others in the camp registering, or feeling that the match would never happen, or that they will think about it when the match actually happens.
Becoming a blood stem cells donor should be an extremely informed and self-conscious decision. Even if a small doubt remains in our minds, it should be clarified before the whole registration process. This is because the probability to find a match in India is so low that if matched, you might be the only match for a particular patient in the whole world. A match means a new ray of hope to the patient and his/her family, for the survival of the patient. If a donor backs out after becoming a match, it is almost death/slow death for a patient, as Blood Stem Cells/ Bone Marrow transplant is the last resort for the patient.
There is a 25%-30% chance for a patient to find a match within the family, but when there is no match in the family, then the patient has to rely on finding a match from registries like DATRI. DATRI is a participating registry with the World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) along with the various registries across the world. There are over 38 million registered blood stem cells donors across the world, but few Indian patients find a match as ethnicity plays an important role.
Blood Stem Cell Donation is similar to platelet donation and has no long-term side effects on the donor’s body.
The registration process is simple and in less than 5 mins you can successfully register as a blood stem cells donor with DATRI. While you’re reading this, over two thousand patients wait to find their one in a million match.
Log on to DATRI to register.
DATRI is registered with the Government of India as a Section 8 organization, and all monetary contributions towards DATRI are subject to 80G exemptions
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About the Author:
Senior Associate with DATRI North India- handling counselling, donations and donor recruitment drives for the past 5 years.