Cycle to Gift a Life saw an overwhelming participation with over 400 cyclists spreading awareness on Blood Stem Cell Donation

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Marking the celebration of World Marrow Donor Day (WMDD) in India, DATRI Blood Stem Cell Donors Registry today organised one of the biggest cycling event in the city. This is the third year in a row that ‘Cycle to Gift a Life’ is being organised by the NGO. Every consecutive year the event has become bigger with better support from both corporate and participants.

Gracing the occasion, Raghul Trekker, Ironman of Tamil Nadu along with Anahita Sriprasad, first lady cycling finisher from Leh to Kanyakumari flagged off the race. Both these athletes emphasised that being fit and active not just gives a healthy life but make one a better Blood Stem Cell Donor as well. The ride started from Ticel Bio Park, Taramani, Chennai at 5:30 am with cyclist choosing to ride under 3 categories ranging from 25km to 100km.

Upadhyagulla Sai, who donated Blood Stem Cell last week, cycled 100 km today proving that donation does not impact one’s health.

Co-founder and CEO of DATRI and an avid cyclist Raghu Rajagopal, said, “We are delighted to see so many participants in this event, showing their support to the cause. We are thankful to our partners, it gives me pride to say that we have over 20 different corporates who have helped us make this event a success.

Every successive year we have seen a bigger participation which reiterates our commitment towards the cause. Hoping to see many more donors coming forward to register to save a life, supported by their family and friends.”

World Marrow Donor Day, is celebrated worldwide to thank all donors. Blood stem cell donor registries in every country organise different events to emphasize that 30 million donors are still not enough, there are still many donors who are waiting to find a match.

Today, while DATRI alone has over 2,76,000 volunteer donors register but still there is a need to raise awareness on blood stem cell donation across masses. The only possibility of giving a new lease of life to people suffering from fatal blood disorders such as Leukemia, Thalassemia, Lymphoma etc. is to increase the number of donors so, their chances of survival could increase.

There are about 1300+ patients register with DATRI who waiting for an unrelated matched donor. A patient has only a 25% chance of finding a matched donor from within the family. With a 1 in 10000 to 1 in over a million chance of finding an unrelated HLA genetically matched donor, we need more volunteer donors to sign up with the registry.