Years-long mission in Ahmedabad to transfuse hope

World Blood Donor DayAhmedabad: For Harish Patel, a coordinator with Sri Sathya Sai Seva Organisation in Ahmedabad, the mission of blood donation started about four decades ago as a support system for children with thalassemia major.“When we started off in Feb 1985, the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) was supporting about 40 children per week. These children needed regular transfusions,” Patel said. “I started donating regularly, along with my family members.”Patel has donated blood 299 times. The donations include both whole blood and blood components such as platelets and plasma. His wife, son, and daughter have also donated extensively.

“I will complete 300 donations soon,” Patel said.June 14 is celebrated as World Blood Donor Day. This year’s theme is ‘One Drop of Humanity. Give Blood. Save Lives.’Several Amdavadis exemplify this giving nature. The city is widely considered the blood donation capital of India, with several records to its name. The records include the highest concentration of centurion blood donors, the highest per-capita blood donation rate, and the first woman centurion blood donor.

The NGO with which Patel is associated has, over the past four decades, collected 78,000 units at an average of 1,900 units annually. “We organise a camp every Sunday, and have received a good response from citizens,” Patel said.Harmit Shah, a physics teacher by profession, is a committed blood donor and one of the 20 conveners for Gurukrupa Foundation.“We have collectively recorded a donation of over 5,000 units through camps in the city.

I have donated blood in several of these camps,” Shah said. “But my focus has often remained on the urgent requirement of blood by hospitals. That’s how I got involved in donations a few years ago.”He said, “I cannot describe the satisfaction the act of donation gives as a small gesture to bring about a change in someone else’s life.”Shah added that people like him often become ambassadors for donations. “Through my profession, I encourage students to donate blood,” he said. “In recent years, several women have come forward regularly to donate.”