Zee Media, MDRI gift a lifeline to people with fatal blood disorders

It’s a small step to help save precious human lives. The lives of those who die due to fatal blood disorders every year. Like leukaemia and thalassemia, for instance.

Zee Media Corporation Ltd., India’s largest news network, in association with Marrow Donor Registry of India, or MDRI, is launching an  awareness initiative, ‘Gift A Life’, designed to help save lives by increasing the registration count of stem cell donors.

A survey has revealed that thousands of people suffering from blood disorders die every year. Studies show that the number of patients in India is likely to increase manifold. Most of these patients can be treated. But most treatments cannot cure all the patients all the time.  In such situations, ‘stem cell’ transplants come to their rescue where the unhealthy bone marrow is replaced with healthy stem cells.

MDRI is one of the first Indian NGOs which is creating a computerised database of voluntary, unrelated stem cell donors to facilitate blood stem cell transplants for patients with life-threatening blood diseases. It recruits donors, carries out HLA testing and initiates a search for matched stem cell donors for any patient anywhere across the globe.

Chairman of MDRI, Dr Sunil Parekh, says, “India today has a very small number of registered donors but it has been observed that it is not that Indians do not want to help in the noble cause.

Conventionally, siblings are the first ones who usually become donors but only 30% patients have an HLA-matched sibling for transplant. Therefore, more than 70% patients are in need of an unrelated marrow donor.”

Zee Media’s ‘Gift A Life’ initiative will address the huge problem by serving three objectives — raising awareness about bone marrow transplant, increasing the database of voluntary donors and inviting financial support for MDRI to conduct HLA testing.

From Sunday (Sept 22), Zee Media has been promoting the awareness campaign by telecasting a special 30-minute episode dedicated to the subject at 6.30pm across its network of 9 channels.

Rohit Kumar, marketing head, Zee Media Corporation Ltd, says, “‘Gift A Life’ is an initiative with the vision of a healthier India. Zee Media, in association with MDRI, is not only informing and educating people but also stimulating the thought and action of participating to do good for the country and our fellow citizens.”