Thanks to the success of the Sankalp Program For Thalassemia Cure, people from different corners of the country look forward to our group for BMT for thalassemia. With haplo identical transplants also beginning to show some promise, BMT is now being sought by many families. The not for profit costs and the fine results has made even people of Kutch look forward to transplants.
Kutch, in Gujarat has a large number of children suffering from thalassemia. A thalassemia day care centre has been established there by Gujarat Adani Institute of Medical Sciences (GAIMS) and Rotary Wall City, Bhuj. Sankalp has been involved on a consultative basis without direct involvement in delivery of care. 4 patients from the region were also offered BMT at the transplant centre in CIMS, with 3 being cured.
On the 2nd of June 2019, Rotary Wall City Club organized the Kutch Thalassemia Meeting 2019 which saw participation of 300+ people. More than 60 children and their families had come in along with several clinicians and other dignitaries of the region including recently elected member of Parliament Mr Vinod Chavda. The star attraction was Dr Lawrence Faulkner, the Medical Director of Cure2Children and Sankalp India Foundation. 2 of the children who underwent BMT also attracted the crowd.
In his hour long talk, Dr Faulkner touched upon several aspects of thalassemia including prevention, management and cure. Emphasizing the need to strengthen management of thalassemia in the day care centres, he opined that the key to a successful BMT is often the hard work done at the day cares in maintaining the well being of the child. Throwing out facts and figures, he encouraged families to be compliant in treatment as sooner or later almost all patients may have a potential access to cure. Several families, children clarified a lot of doubts. His talk gave several people a ray of hope. While the fathers of 2 children expressed their immense gratitude and appealed to several other families to consider transplant, Shaival Gandhi from Sankalp spoke about the support, logistics, finances etc that would be put in place for the transplant
The Kutch Thalasemia 2019 shall serve as key element in enabling more transplants to patients from that region