Poster showing the picture of Karam Kaur displayed by DATRI at awareness camp
DATRI conducting Blood Stem Cell Volunteer Donor registration camps
across Punjab to find match for Karam Kaur and Jasnoor Deol
DATRI In Search Of Matching Stem Cells For two Patients from Sikh Community in Canada
DAV University and CMC Ludhiana helped add 650 donors to the Blood Stem Cell Registry
Jalandhar , September 21, 2019 : Two young patients from the Sikh Community in Canada, Karam Kaur, 25 years and Jasnoor Deol, 20 years are suffering from an aggressive blood cancer - Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.
DATRI has been organizing various drives across Sikh communities to find a donor/s who could save their precious lives.
According to DATRI , Karam is a student at University of Waterloo and has enrolled in Doctor of Optometry Program. In May this year, she was diagnosed with Blood Cancer and is now waiting to find donor for a life-saving transplant. On the other hand, Jasnoor Deol has been suffering from blood Cancer for over 5 years now, he has undergone all possible treatments and now his last hope is a blood stem-cell donor.
DATRI is hoping that the two drives help find match not only for Karam and Jasnoor but also for many such patients who are waiting to find a matched donor who could give them a new lease of life.
DAV University, Jalandhar, and Christian Medical College (CMC), Ludhiana along with DATRI, India’s largest adult unrelated Blood Stem Donor Registry conducted an awareness session for their students to tell them about Blood Stem Cell Donation and how they can save lives of patients suffering from life threatening disorders.
At DAV University, 494 students registered during the camp held on 3rd and 4th September for spreading awareness and telling students that each one of them can save life of a patient suffering from fatal Blood Disorders. DATRI’s team was helped and supported by their NSS in-charge Dr Samriti Khosla.
At CMC, 131 volunteer donors registered during the two days drive held on 11th and 12th September. Dr Joseph John, Professor & Head, Clinical Haematology made a special presentation, wherein he emphasized that, “We have a huge number of patients suffering from fatal blood disorders like Blood cancer and Thalassemia Major among others for which the last resort is Blood Stem Cell transplant. For patients who could not find a match within their family the only hope is registries like DATRI.”
He further added, “Till date I have referred a number of patients to DATRI for a match and we have been successful in gifting a life to a few of them. It is therefore important for more people to register with DATRI to help find more matches between donor and recipient.”
It is appalling to know that only 4981 donors are registered with DATRI as potential blood stem cell donors from Punjab, a state with 27.98 million population. These numbers are very less compared to other cities in the country. This definitely calls for more awareness in the state, about the importance of saving lives through blood stem cell donation for blood cancer patients.
It is sad that even after every donor is being made aware the he or she would be the last hope of cure to a patient if found a match, there are still around 40% backouts from volunteer donors. While for a patient that donor could be the only person in the world who could save his/her life. There is a dire need to spread awareness which will help save lives of thousands of patients.
Typically, these patients would first try to find a match within their family and there are 25% chances to find a match amongst family members. Else, they have to look out for a perfect match from a registry like DATRI. As of today, the probability of finding a HLA matched donor is only 1 in 10,000 to one in over a million, as the total number of volunteer donors registered are very low. There are only a little more than 4 lakhs blood stem cell donors registered with DATRI as of today, which is less than 0.33% of the total population of India.
About DATRI:
DATRI is India’s largest unrelated Blood Stem Cell Donor registry. Founded in 2009 by Mr Raghu Rajagopal, Dr Nezih Cereb and Dr Soo Young Yang. DATRI’s vision is to help a patient seeking a blood stem cell donor find a healthy, willing and genetically matched donor. DATRI has more than 4,13,879 registered voluntary donors and has facilitated more than 610 blood stem cell donations. DATRI has serviced in 59 hospitals over 10 years.
DATRI is a not-for-profit organization registered with Bone Marrow Donors Worldwide and is a member of World Marrow Donors Association (WMDA). For more details, please visit, www.datri.org.