Thalassemia major Partth Thakur helps other leukaemia and thalassemia patients' wishes come true
"There are young patients like me who don't live to see tomorrow.Death comes to everyone but the fact of going sooner haunts me," says Partth Thakur, a 21-year-old thalassemia patient. Inspired to start a not-for-profit initiative called The Wishing Factory, the NGO has helped fulfil 138 wishes of leukaemia and thalassemia patients.
A brief history
The Wishing Factory is the brainchild of Partth himself, but getting there wasn't easy. As a teenager, he refused to make a sandwich for his grandfather, a month later his grandfather passed away. "I have seen death so closely, the intuition of something bad happening never leaves," says Parth. His pet dog Brandy also died in front of him from a cardiac seizure. "I won't say these encounters have changed me, but they acted as a trigger, leading me to start the NGO."
Coming from a middle-class family, Partth's parents spend 30 thousand each month on medications. Requiring blood every 15 days, Parth sees his life as not merely his own but as borrowed time. In a heartening conversation, he says, "Life is very precious, in the literal sense. I live because there are donors willing to keep me alive. And I'd hate to waste my life."
The works
The NGO was started in November 2015, when Partth and his room-mate Neel, saved Rs 800 as their first investment. Using this money to make letterheads and a rubber stamp, he says, "We spoke to investors who trusted us. It was still in its trial and error phase, so we did not register the NGO." Now run by a team of six persons, it operates in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. The NGO has managed to fulfil 138 wishes.
Getting creative
Patients are asked to draw their wish on a paper and send it to the NGO. Harshala Kharat, a 29-year-old postgraduate recently moved to Pune. Being a thalassemia patient, she badly wanted a helicopter ride and it was made available to her. Here's what she has to say: "We roamed around Mumbai in the helicopter. It was such a thrilling experience and I will never forget it."
Komal Mishra, a volunteer with the NGO speaks of her experience, "I have been working with the NGO since its conception. There is no greater joy than seeing a smile on patients' faces, when a wish is fulfilled. There is always scope for improvement, and now we are better organised. For example, we ask for documents like a thalassemia card to prove that one is a patient."
No one denies that this noble programme has much to do, but the important thing is that it has already begun.
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