I went to my father’s office a couple of days ago to find
out about and volunteer in an awareness and donor drive conducted by DATRI.
Datri is a non-profit organization which is working towards creating a registry
of potential donors for the Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplant.
^^^Too much of technicality out there with dozens of
unanswered questions? Confused and can’t understand what I’m talking about?
Here, I’ll try to explain it a bit more easily. Every year, millions of people get
diagnosed with blood disorders, one of them being leukemia. Till now, the only
cure for such diseases that we knew of was a full Bone Marrow Transplant, which
is needless to say, painful. But now, we have an alternate – the PBSC
(Peripheral Blood Stem Cell) Transplant.
So what are peripheral blood stem cells? Basically, these
stem cells are found in our bone marrow (an injection allows us to release them
into the blood stream) and can transform into red blood cells, white blood
cells or platelets. Thus, when a person is undergoing diagnosed with (let’s
say) leukemia, you have to replace the faulty stem cells as they are the root
cause. This is where the PBSC transplant
comes into the picture. Once a person with a 10/10 HLA match is found, chemotherapy
is first used to kill the patient’s stem cells and the donor’s blood stem cells
are transferred into the patients’ blood stream and TADAAA, you have saved a
life.
Alright that isn’t it (chuckles),
but for more information, you could visit DATRI’s website http://datriworld.org/. :) The first step to
become a donor though, is attending the awareness drive and giving in your
samples for the buccal swab test. This is what I attended. The buccal swab test
is really simple. It’s just like brushing your inner cheek with an ear bud four
times. Then you put those “ear-buds” in the given envelope and sign a consent
form which says that you are willing to donate as and when needed.
The thing is, the odds of finding a match is 1:10,000. More
the number of people ready to donate, larger the registry becomes, greater the
chances of a life being saved. Currently, 20-25 transfusions happen DAILY in
Germany and that is something to be proud about. I got the honour of talking to
Ms. Claudia, who began the whole process in Germany 22 years ago and this is
what she told me, “India is a huge country. You have lots of people, and a lot
of lives can be saved. Creating awareness may take time – It took us 20 years
in Germany too! Now, in Germany, you’ll hear people complaining of issues like
why they can’t find a dress!” We have successfully completed 47 transplants in
India under Datri. It’s a small number, but with more people signing up, I’m sure the
numbers will increase!
On another note, apart from getting locked in the
complicated passages and figuring out which lift takes me to which side of the
canteen, I had an interesting day at office. Talking to DATRI’s founder, a
teacher who plays an active role, a donor, a patient’s parents and Claudia was
humbling. I also had a good time talking to the people coming in and out of the
lift beside the canteen and telling them that the donor drive is taking place. It
was amusing how half of the people didn’t know about it, even though there were
big posters in the canteen and at the entrance. Funny how oblivious we can get to
our surroundings.
Look out for drives and keep reading (about such cures and
my blog!:P)
Kanksha :)
