A 22-year-old girl gave up her job in an MNC company and joined an NGO to propagate the cause of stem cell donation.
Kiranmai Srinija Silaparasetty, who claims to be the first woman stem cell donor from the city, derives profound satisfaction for being able to give a new lease of life to a four-year-old boy, suffering from thalassemia.
Kiranmai was working at HSBC, when Datri, a Chennai-based NGO, working in the area of promoting awareness on stem cell donation, organised an awareness campaign. A coordinator of Datri told her that she could donate her stem cells, if her genetics matched with that of a needy patient. A swab is rolled inside the cheek and the saliva is collected and sent to the lab for Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) typing. Once the HLA typing was done and the report received, the donor details would be recorded in the registry, maintained by Datri.
“It may take years to find a suitable HLA match for a patient, requiring bone marrow transplant. Sometimes, it may not happen at all. In India, the chances are bleak with not many registrations,” Ms. Kiranmai told The Hindu in an interview.
“I had registered my name and within two months I was lucky to get a call from Datri that my HLA matched with that of Kaviraj (4) of Coimbatore, who was battling for life due to Thalassemia. It took time for me to convince my parents about the safety of stem cell donation,” she says.
She was given five injections over a couple of weeks to stimulate the generation of additional stem cells.
The bone marrow cells were drawn from her blood with a syringe. Later she met Datri CEO Raghu Rajagopal in Chennai and learnt more about stem cell donation.
“Post-donation in July 2019, I quit my job in the MNC and joined Datri full-time to promote the noble cause. I succeeded in motivating many people citing my own example.”“Datri had 4 lakh names on its registry but only my HLA matched with that of Kaviraj. Had I not donated, the kid would not have lived to see this day,” she adds. Emandi Manikanta, her former colleague, has joined her as a volunteer, and assists her in spreading the message during the weekends.
Kiosk
Ms. Kiranmai plans to set up an awareness kiosk on Beach Road on November 15 and 16, ahead of the Navy Marathon on November 17.
