Bengaluru: Blood stem cell donors share their experiences of saving lives

Bengaluru: Blood stem cell donors from Bengaluru spoke out ahead of World Marrow Donor Day (September 17) to share their experience saving the life of a patient with blood cancer and how it changed their lives. Additionally, they urged individuals to sign up as potential stem cell donors in order to battle blood cancer and other blood-related disorders and save someone's life.

DKMS BMST Foundation India honoured the donors Arushit, Debraj, Daniel, and Suresh who had recently been fortunate enough to donate their blood stem cells and had become proud lifesavers.

"It has been a wonderful experience of knowing that I could save a life. I was explained and guided each step of the way and all my queries were satisfactorily answered. Hopefully, I will meet the person I have helped soon. I feel good about this whole experience," said Arushit, a software engineer who recently donated blood stem cells.

"I am elated at the fact that my stem cell donation was able to help someone live, and it motivates and inspires me to do more for others in life. Giving someone a second chance at life is a deeply satisfying feeling. Let us all come together in large numbers to register as stem cell donors and give hope of life to others," expressed Debraj, another donor.

Dr. Sunil Bhat, Director & Clinical Lead, Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Blood & Marrow Transplantation, Narayana Health said, "India has a very high burden of blood cancer and disorder patients, who due to the lack of potential matching donor are looking at a bleak future. Today, treating and managing blood cancer and blood disorder is possible with a stem cell transplant. Blood stem cell transplant is typically a procedure that replaces unhealthy bone marrow cells of the patient with healthy cells. Peripheral blood stem cells are collected from the donor via a similar process to blood platelet donation."

Patrick Paul, CEO, DKMS BMST Foundation India, said, "As per the World Marrow Donor Association, there are over 40 million donors registered across the globe. Only 0.5 million of these are from India. In India, there is a huge demand and supply gap in patients looking for stem cell transplant from a matching donor. Only 30% of the patients are able to get matching stem cells from their family members the rest 70% of the patients are looking for a matching unrelated donor. India has an ancient population with a diverse ethnicity, therefore it becomes very important that more and more people from varied ethnic backgrounds come forward to register as a stem cell donor. Today, only 0.04% of the total population is registered as a potential blood stem cell donor."

He also expressed his gratitude towards those who came forward and contributed to the fight against blood cancer and other blood disorders. "Today, their experiences of saving a life can inspire countless individuals to become stem cell donors. Each life is precious and so many lives can be saved with the medical technology and treatment available today, the need of the hour is for the people to come ahead to register and help patients get a second chance at life," he concluded.