Generous contributions poured in for a 35-year-old woman struggling to save her son’s life from Pure Red Cell Aplasia (PRCA), a rare blood disorder where the bone marrow ceases to produce red blood cells.
Responding to a news report with the headline “A mother’s plea to save her son’s life” published in The Hindu on Thursday, people donated ₹97,000 so far.
B. Lokesh (17) was diagnosed with PRCA a month after his birth. His mother B. Surekha, a tailor, and late father B. Ravi saved all their money for his treatment.
The teenager needs ₹4,000 per month for medicines. He also needs two rounds of blood transfusion a month and for that, need to spend another ₹1,000 to travel from their government sanctioned home at Abdullapurmet to a blood bank in central Hyderabad.
After Ravi died of a heart attack in February 2017, the financial responsibility of taking care of Lokesh was on Surekha. She earns only about ₹3,000 a month by stitching clothes and gets ₹2,000 as pension from the government. A ‘meagre’ ₹5,000 was not enough to meet the daily expenses and so, for his treatment, she used to rely on hand loans.
The ordeal was published in these columns, along with her bank account number and phone number.
People from various walks of life called her and assured her financial help. A total of ₹97,000 was transferred to her account till Thursday, including ₹50,000 and ₹10,000 from two individuals. Besides, some students promised her to pool in more money.
“I never expected so many people will come forward to help me. I was worried that my son might not survive as we did not have enough money to buy medicines. I am thankful to everybody for the generous donation,” Ms. Surekha said.
An assistant professor of hemotology at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinivas Bacchu, said, “He will require bone marrow transplant provided he has the minimum iron overload and a Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) matched sibling.”
