Need blood in a hurry? It's just an SMS away

Arranging for blood in an emergency can be an ordeal, and most often involves scouring various blood banks and frantic calls to relatives and friends. It also takes time, a crucial differentiator between life and death in such situations. A new SMS seeker-donor matching service is set to change all that.

When faced with such an emergency, all you have to do now is remember one number - 9665 5000 00. Send an SMS to this number, and within 15 seconds you will receive a reply with details of the blood donor closest to you. At the moment, the service works only with STD codes, so there might be a chance that, in a large city like Mumbai, the donor is located some distance away. 

The initiative comes after the launch of a website called www.indianblooddonors.com and www.givemedicine.com, both run by Khushroo Poacha. These websites are also very useful as they connect people who want to donate blood to those seeking it. But it’s primary drawback is that not many people are aware of the website, and not everyone has access to the internet.

“Even though many cannot access internet, a majority of people have mobile phones, with around 525 million connections in the country. So I thought about setting up a system in which people only have to SMS to a number to connect with a donor or a seeker,” Poacha said.

“My quest began with searching for a number which would be remembered by all. Everyone should save the number on their mobile, since no one knows when one would need blood for a family member,” he added.