In a country where organ and cell donation rates are abysmal, here are three women who have chosen to save precious lives, and unconditionally so.
<img title="Womens day" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2015/mar/womens-day.jpg" alt="Womens day" /> (From left to right) Sherin Cherian, Meenakshi V and Sneha Shah
Twenty-five-year-old Sherin Cherian, Sneha Shah, 27 and Meenakshi V, 55, are real-life heroines &mdash; they donate their blood stem cells to patients in need and have made a difference to the quality of the patients&rsquo; lives without ever having met them in person.
Cherian, a nurse at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital &amp; Medical Research Centre, helped save the live of three-year-old Anvi Pednekar, who suffered from myelofibrosis (a disorder of the bone marrow) (mid-day wrote a series of reports about Anvi and invited donations).
&lsquo;I was moved by her plight&rsquo; In 2013, Cherian attended a seminar on cell donation at a local church which was organised by DATRI to save a 24-year-old woman patient diagnosed with leukemia in Chennai.
&ldquo;I was moved by her plight and volunteered. As per the procedure, my buccal swab sample was taken and sent to a laboratory in the US for Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) testing. I was told only if my stem cell matched with that of the patient or any other patient in future, I would be contacted. A few months later, I was told that my stem cell matched with the patient and was advised to undergo few more tests before the donation,&rdquo; remembers Cherian.
She adds that her parents were very supportive of her decision and now, she is keen to meet the recipient patient, &ldquo;According the rules of the donation, I can meet the patient only after a year. I can&rsquo;t wait,&rdquo; she smiles.
Ruchita Pednekar, Anvi&rsquo;s 34-year-old mother said the lack of donors drives parents like her to depend on foreign donors, which escalates the cost of the treatment. &ldquo;We have a large population &mdash; if only more donors came forward. Even if one fourth of our people donate stem cells, every patient&rsquo;s need will be met,&rdquo; she said. .
&lsquo;Don&rsquo;t back out&rsquo; Shah, a Bandra-based business analyst, participated in a stem cell donation awareness programme organised at work last year. &ldquo;I was moved when I learnt about a nine-year-old schoolgirl from Delhi needing a stem cell transplant to treat thalassemia major. I immediately gave my buccal sample and it matched,&rdquo; she said.
Shah says the procedure has no complications, before or after the donation, and appealed to people to come forward. &ldquo;Think twice before registering as a donor as you are giving ray of hope to a family and the recipient is fighting for life. There were instances where people would allow the swab to be tested and when they matched, they backed out.&rdquo;
Meenakshi works with the Accountant General Office, and is a resident of Nagpur. In 2008, she and her daughter Niranjani V, a medical student, submitted their swabs and in September 2012, Meenakshi donated her stem cells to a UK national without even knowing the recipient.
Meenakshi has managed to convince some relatives to be donors and has even started campaigning locally. &ldquo;I cannot provide monetary assistance to anyone, but this is the least I can do to save someone&rsquo;s life,&rdquo; she said. Datri, a non-profit organisation in Chennai collects samples to fight leukemia, lymphoma, chronic granulomatous disease (CGD), aplastic anaemia.
Co-founder CEO of Datri, Raghu Rajagopal said, &ldquo;With very few registered donors available in India, the possibility of finding a match for an Indian anywhere in the world is very bleak - perhaps one in 10,000 to 2 million samples matches. Today, we have around 76,000 registered donors with us, of which nearly 25,000 donors are women across the country between 18-55 years of age.&rdquo;
Write to info@datriworld.org or contact@datriworld.org

On International Women&rsquo;s Day we meet three women who chose the selfless act of stem cell donation

International Women's day: Saving lives, one stem cell donation at a time

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International Women's day: Saving lives, one stem cell donation at a time

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