Sometimes the blood is not red enough!
We don’t realise how lucky we are by having a healthy and disease-free body. Unlike us, Disha is not completely healthy. Let’s hear it from her.
Hey, my name is Disha, and I’m 8 years old. In an age where most of us are scared of injections, I have to get blood injected into my veins every month.
When kids of my age are playing in the garden, I can’t even step outside for my life would be shortened.
I want to hop in the parks, run in the open grounds, I too want to swing around the Merry-go-round. I want to get a little injured. But for once, without visiting a hospital.
I want to feel free and lively for a while. I want to laugh hard and not cry like back in time. I wish I could do all this and not pray for some magic to happen. I desperately want to get rid of this disease: Thalassemia major.
Over 1 lakh thalassaemia patients die before they turn 20 because of a lack of access to treatment.
So what is Thalassemia?
It is a blood disorder involving lower-than-normal amounts of an oxygen-carrying protein. Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder characterised by less oxygen-carrying protein (haemoglobin) and fewer red blood cells in the body than usual.
Fatigue, weakness, paleness, and slow growth are the typical symptoms of Thalassemia. Its mild forms may not need treatment. But the severe forms may require blood transfusions or a donor stem-cell transplant. With preventive health not being the norm in India, people suffering from thalassemia are unknowingly passing on this genetic disorder to their children.
Every year more than 10,000 children with thalassemia major are born in India.
For Thalassemia major treatment, a large supply of blood is required. It is because the recommended treatment for thalassemia major involves lifelong regular blood transfusions, usually administered every two to five weeks.
Without regular transfusion of blood, the patient might die very soon.
How can you contribute to fighting this cause?
The answer is very simple “by donating blood”. Blood can be not be made in a factory, you can only donate it. With every donation you do, you are helping save 3–4 lives. You are helping those thousands of thalassemia kids survive and battle it out. You are helping reduce that haunted number of 1 lakh thalassemia deaths before 20.
Donate blood and save lives. If just 2% of India’s youth donates blood regularly, India will be blood sufficient!
As Disha says for all her donors:
For all the donors who are donating blood for me
I really want to thank you for donating blood and bestowing me with a life to live. A reason to believe that God may not always perform a miracle but let me know that he does exist. And who knows, one day my reports might as well come negative, and I’ll live happily ever after.
Source of data: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/over-1-lakh-thalassaemia-patients-die-before-they-turn-20/articleshow/64085659.cms
