Ten-year-old Vipul Lalbhai Chaudhary was first diagnosed with Thalassemia when he was a two-month-old baby. His entire childhood has been very challenging, with blood transfusions every month to sustain his medical condition. Vipul and many other patients are still suffering from life-threatening blood disorders and blood cancers. They are still waiting for their one in a million matched blood stem cell donor who can gift them a second chance at life.

Presently Vipul is staying with his maternal grandparents. He loves to play carrom drive the electric bike, and he is fond of wristwatches. He loves his maternal uncle a lot.

Vipul’s father is working in a diamond factory and can barely meet his family’s needs. Therefore, Vipul is staying with his maternal grandparents, bearing all the cost of his treatments. Vipul’s mother is a homemaker. He has two sisters. One is seven years old whose HLA does not match that of Vipul. The younger sister is just three months old, whose HLA is to be done in a few months to see if she’s a match with Vipul.

Mr. Hirabhai Chaudhary, Vipul’s uncle, says, “Vipul is a Thalassemic child, and there are many more such children like him in our district. There is no support for diagnosis from the government, and therein is not a sure shot scientific method for diagnosing this disease. A blood stem cell transplant is the only permanent cure for this disease. Only then do these children survive. Otherwise, these children cannot get married; their life is shortened. They are alive as long as their treatment is being done else; they cannot survive. So, kindly come forward and register as a voluntary blood stem cell donor to help such children.”