Why Blood Stem Cell donation is very much needed?

Sri Ramakrishna Hospital celebrates World Marrow Donor Day

A marrow or blood stem cell donor is a volunteer adult person who is willing to donate cells for blood stem cell or marrow transplantation. World Marrow Donor Day (WMDD) is celebrated on the third Saturday of September every year to thank all donors worldwide; unrelated donors, family donors, cord blood donors, donors who already have donated, and donors who are on the global registry waiting to donate.

To raise awareness among the general public and decision-makers about being a stem cell donor and the impact of blood stem cell transplantation on patients’ lives, Sri Ramakrishna Hospital organised an awareness rally on 21.9.2019 commemorating the WMDD.

200 Students and Staff of various institutions of SNR Sons Charitable Trust participated in the rally which was flagged off by Swathi Rohit, CBO, SNR Sons Charitable Trust. Dr.Isaac Christian Moses, Medical Director of the Hospital and C.V.Ramkumar, CEO of the trust took part in the event. The rally commenced from Women’s Polytechnic Road and concluded at VOC Park.

Dr. Suthanthira Kannan, Consultant Hemato Oncologist, Sri Ramakrishna Hospital , Advanced Centre for Blood and Blood cancers said “We hope that such events help inspire many more volunteer donors which will help save life of patients who are in need of stem cell transplant”.

It was conveyed through a statement from the hospital  that D.Lakshminarayanasamy, Managing Trustee, SNR Sons Charitable Trust has signed a MoU with DATRI, India’s largest blood stem cell donors registry for facilitating third party stem cell transplant in their centre.

Today while DATRI alone has over 4,10,000 volunteer donors register, there is still a need to raise awareness on blood stem cell donation across masses. The only possibility of giving a new lease of life to people suffering from fatal blood disorders such as Leukemia, Thalassemia, Lymphoma etc is to increase the number of donors so, their chances of survival could increase.