DATRI

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 :)