208 VOLUNTARY DONORS FROM LUCKNOW REGISTER WITH DATRI

LUCKNOW : DATRI, a blood stem donor registry, organised camps across four colleges and coaching centres in Lucknow during October in which 208 young voluntary donors pledged to help save life of patients suffering with blood cancer or children with thallasemia. DATRI received stupendous response from colleges, including Institute of Management Research and Technology - [IMRT] where 32 students registered, College of Innovative Management and Science (CIMS)- 52 registrations, Mahindra Coaching Center 55 registrations and 82 students registered from 2 awareness camps held at Jaipuria Institute of Management. Speaking on the cause Sudher Rai, HOD education department, College of Innovative Management and Science said, “We are happy to support DATRI to help find match donor for patients suffering with fatal blood disorders like blood cancer and Thalassemia.” “The only hope of survival for such patients is a blood stem cell transplant. For patients who are unable to find a match within their family there is no hope, it is only with help of registries like DATRI that give a ray of hope for such patients,” he said. Typically, these patients would first try to find a match within their family and there are 25% chances to find a match amongst family members. Else, they have to look out for a perfect match from a registry like DATRI, he said. As of today, the probability of finding a HLA matched donor is only 1 in 10,000 to one in over a million, as the total number of volunteer donors registered are very low. There are only a little over 4 lakh blood stem cell donors registered with DATRI as of today, which is less than 0.33% of the total population of India.