New Delhi: “It was an emotional moment inaugurating the Paediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at SRCC Hospital,” said the 45-year-old cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar as he inaugurated a Bone Marrow unit in Mumbai in a hope to bridge the gap between the patients and donors of Bone Marrow Transplant in India. Sharing this ‘emotional moment’ on social media, Sachin Tendulkar wrote, “The Paediatric Bone Marrow Transplant Unit has been donated by my in-laws, in memory of their daughter Tara who they lost at a young age due to lack of such facilities; their hope is that no parent has to ever go through the same.”
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According to the Marrow Donor Registry of India, around the world, at any given time there are about 3,000 patients searching for a donor for a bone marrow transplant. The worrisome part is that less than 30 per cent of these 3,000 patients are likely to find a suitable donor within their family and the other 70 per cent will have to rely on a match from bone marrow donations outside their family circle, the possibility for which is extremely low.
With a hope to change these grim statistics, the cricket icon has come forward to show his support towards the cause.
Also Read: This Project Aims To Overcome Shortage Of Donor Organs
View Sachin Tendulkar’s Post
The master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has been involved in many philanthropic activities post his retirement from cricket in 2013. From adopting villages in India in order to provide them basic amenities and safe sanitation facilities to promoting sports in various part of the country and now supporting the cause of Organ donation in India, Sachin Tendulkar has done many things, being the socially responsible citizen of India.
What Is Bone Marrow Transplant
Just in case you don’t know what the bone marrow transplant is – a person requires a bone marrow transplant (BMT) when their blood is not healthy enough to support them or to fight an underlying disease. The bone marrow transplant is a procedure to replace bone marrow that has been damaged or destroyed by disease, infection, or chemotherapy, with healthy bone marrow stem cells.