PSG-IMSR is setting an example by joining hands with Datri towards helping patients who desperately are looking forward towards a blood stem cell donor. DATRI is the country’s largest adult unrelated blood stem cell donor registry which was born through the initiatives of Raghu Rajagopal, Dr. Nezih Cereb and Dr. Soo Young Yang in 2009. DATRI has more than 3, 40,000 registered donors and have already facilitated 382 blood stem cell donations including 54 donations for International patients.
Being a non-profit organization it main aim is to help every patient across the globe find a suitable and genetically matched donor because stats reveal there are over 2000 patients waiting in que to find their life savior. The organization works with 19 collection centers and serviced 75 transplant centers worldwide. DATRI is registered with Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide and is a member of World Bone Marrow Donor Association.
Speaking at PSG institute of Medical Sciences, Raghu, the Co-founder and CEO of DATRI said when he returned from US and found no proper registry being maintained for donors, he took upon the onus top start one though he faced obstacles by means of lack of support yet today the organization has achieved what it can be proud of.
Addressing the gathering Raghu said in India none of us are decision makers. He cited an example from Gujarat wherein
Raghu is passionate towards cancer cure especially towards those who were suffering from blood disorders in India. He was awarded BITS Pilani which is the most distinguished Alumnus Award in 2017 along with ET Now, CSR Leadership Award- 2018 in the category Social Entrepreneur of the Year. Present at the event was Dr. Ramalingam, Dean of PSG Institute of Medical Sciences who expressed immense satisfaction and pride in associating with DATRI towards spreading awareness on Blood Stem Cell Donation. He urged students of the institution to come forward and become volunteer donors for saving lives of those suffering from blood disorders.
Fortunately a donor named Anthony Robins was also present during the event. Anthony met his receipt a while before the event commenced. He was a 7 year old boy who suffered a rare blood disorder called Pure Red Cell Aplasia. Because of timely action from Anthony, he is now able to lead a normal life and Anthony says, this is one of a kind experience because it showed a true sense of life.
DATRI registry is made up of 46% students. Of the 393 donations by DATRI about 100 students have donated Blood Stem Cells to save lives. Raghu thanked PSG-IMSR saying, we are happy to have associated with institutions like PSG-IMSR who have identified the core problem and are supportive towards this noble cause.
The donors present were Satheesh Kumar Viswanathan, Kannan, Nandha Kumar, Subramani, Thiyaga Veerakumar, Dhamodharan S and Boopathy Nanjukutty. These donors were felicitated during the event for their noble cause in the last three years. We also found a donor named Ebby who saved a young man life at Pune. He quit his job as a Researcher in Chennai and now works for DATRI as a counselor Head.