First Blood Stem Cell Donation from Jharkhand : Khushwant Singh has opened the way

Ranchi, Jharkhand | December | 19, 2017 ::  The 18th of  Dec. 2017 marked to be the first unrelated Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Donation by a person from Jharkhand. Thanks to the selfless act of the 23 year old B. Ed. student Khushwant Singh (regular blood donor of LIFE SAVERS) from Ranchi who registered under DATRI last year. It’ll permanent cure nine year old patient suffering from AML (Blood Cancer).

Dr. Soumya Bhattacharya, onco-haematologists of Apollo Gleneagles Hospital Kolkata said

“Datri is doing a wonderful job of registering stem cell donors, arranging their harvest and doing the transport of these harvested stem cells to different transplant centres for the stem cell transplants to take place.”

Khushwant Singh (donor) said

“Though I felt happy that I have been able to gift a life to someone within my lifetime, but it’s not just about saving a life, instead it’s about saving humanity and finding inner peace. I want to inspire others to come forward and save lives.

I’ve donated blood 14 times. In blood if one denies to donate then others can save the life but in stem cell it’s only the chosen person who can save a life so it’s important for every person to register and donate if matched.

I just hope that the child for whom I have donated my stem cells is cured and leads a normal life.”

Atul Gera, the founder of LIFE SAVERS- Ranchi said

“We’ve motivated so many people to donate blood to save lives, now it’s time to add Stem Cells to it. LIFE SAVERS, Ranchi will try to organize many blood stem cell donor registration drives in Ranchi and adjoining areas under DATRI to motivate more young people to sign up as prospective blood stem cell donors. Khushwant has opened the way.”

Datri Head – East India, Ananya Ghosh has appealed everyone to come ahead and register as a blood stem cell donor. She said “DATRI is a Chennai based NGO having India’s largest database of unrelated blood stem cell donors of around 3 lakh. Khushwant being the 328th  blood stem cell donor of DATRI.

It takes just 2 minutes to fill up a registration form and do a buccal swab test for HLA Typing.

This small initiative taken today can save a life tomorrow. So, act now, gift a life!”