mumbai among the thousands who will participate in tata mumbai marathon 2023 on sunday 58yearold chembur resident mahendra sharma will run the half marathon to focus attention on liver healththe dream run is the festive part of the marathon with causeambassadors raising funds and awareness for transplants in general mental health autism climate change etc sharma who will be running his fourth half marathon was diagnosed with hepatitis b infection over 30 years back and believes he contracted the virus through a blood transfusion he underwent as a collegianeight years ago i was diagnosed with fatty liver and hepatologist dr aabha nagral told me i had to make significant lifestyle changes to reduce 10 of my body weight and avoid health complications in the future he said it took him months to get the right combination of diet and activity but he lost 10kgsharma has since learnt yoga never missed meditating for a day and runs every other day because i believe healthy living can make all the difference he will run to raise awareness for childrens liver foundation a ngo that provides assistance to kids suffering from liver ailments dr nagral said there was an urgent need to create awareness about liver ailments at present if a patient is diagnosed with a viral infection such as hepatitis b or c there is no mechanism to get hisher siblings to get tested she said such infections take over 20 years to manifest if at all so it makes sense to test siblings rather than the spouse or children she addedplastic surgeon dr nilesh satbhai will run the full marathon to highlight his pet cause the need for donations for hand transplant our last hand transplant was in february 2022 mainly because there is no awareness about it he said running the dream run for the same cause will be monika more the citys first hand transplant patient organ donation is a selfless act of generosity that can potentially save countless lives by donating organs families provide an invaluable service to those in need and help extend life expectancy for many others he addedvolunteers for ngo family planning association of india will run to raise funds for adolescents stating that adolescents comprise 21 of indias population the ngo wants funds to tackle issues such as nutritional deficiencies reproductive health problems sexually transmitted infections etc