In December 2016 Kiran Verma quit his high paying marketing job to champion the cause of voluntary blood donation and started a campaign regarding the cause. The Delhi based man is now on a 21000 km journey across India by foot to encourage the cause of blood donation.
Varma recalled an event, “Following a distress call from a stranger I donated blood at a hospital in December 2016. It was only when I met the recipient family that I learnt that the blood was sold to the poor patient from Chhattisgarh whose wife had paid 1,500 for it. Due to poverty and the impact of demonetisation, the woman was pushed to prostitution tomeet her husband’s medical expenses. Shattered and infuriated by the plight of the woman I quit my job as a marketing professional the very same day and chose to work towards ensuring free access to donated blood.”
A year later Verma set up ‘Change with one foundation’ through which he started the virtual location-based blood donation website application ‘Simply blood’ that brings blood donors and recipients together. This platform has yet saved around 35,000 lives through blood donation.
The social worker who has donated blood 46 times since the age of 19 retorted, “On a mission to encourage voluntary blood donation that has declined significantly in the past two years due to the pandemic I have embarked on a 21,000 km journey on foot covering all the states and union territories. The motto is to spread awareness so that by 2026, nobody in India should die waiting for blood.”
Starting his to your walking campaign from Thiruvanathapuram on December 28 last year he set foot on Tamil Nadu on February 8, Verma, who has covered over 1,500 km yet reached Madurai on Tuesday evening and completed the 50th day of his ambitious journey at the temple town on Wednesday. Is next headed to Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district.
Speaking about the mission Verma said, “In a year 15 million units of blood are required in India but only 11 million units of blood pools in of which 1 million units are discarded after being deemed unfit for use adding fuel to the fire is the covid-19 outbreak which led to a dip in blood donation at hospitals due to infection square and hesitancy even among the regular donors.”
Delhi-based man quits high paying job to spread awareness about blood donation
