new delhi suswati maity and her younger brother arijit were playing in the lawn of indraprastha apollo hospital on monday as were several kids who were invited there on world thalassemia day the siblings are among the fortunate few who now dont need repeated blood transfusionsthey are beneficiaries of stem cell donations from two persons a telangana banker and a tamil nadu doctor who saved them from the lifelong cycle of blood transfusions that can cost at least rs 15 lakh annually along with medicines and other coststheir mother rumpa knows how fortunate the family from noida was when three years ago the donors were found to be perfect matches for the kids a bill that runs into lakhs for a family that earns a few thousands was tough to sustain the two donors are no less than angels rumpa said they were the answer to all our prayers her children no longer need blood transfusions every monthone of the donors was 31yearold chandra shekhar when toi spoke to him he said he felt lucky for what he could do my stem cells has helped a child live a normal and healthy life shekhar said and appealed to everyone to donate stem cells if the parameters match with a patients please donate stem cells because this could mean gifting a life to someone i had registered with datri a nonprofit organisation that organises donors after coming to know of the importance of stem cell donation it is worth doing it for someone he saidthe second donor a 27yearold doctor wanted to remain anonymous because his family did not know about his donation his account reflected the social resistance that donors face my family will never understand this they would have tried to stop me i am happy that the child is doing well as a medical professional i understand the need and i had registered as a donor during a drive in my locality i am thankful for the organisation that gave me the chance to donate and make a difference in someones life he saidtenyearold suswati who is in class v and arijit who is eight and in class iii have not met their donorstheir doctor dr guarav kharya the director at the centre for bone marrow transplant and cellular therapy said that such donations can happen from one sibling to another if they are human leukocyte antigen hlamatched but in suswati and arijits case this was not to be as both had thalassemia this meant that they needed two donors who were unrelated to them but would be 100 hlamatchedwhen we searched in an unrelated donor registry we fortunately found compatible donors for the children he said the hospital approached the nonprofit organisation datri that provides voluntary donors and coordinates such donations if any of our patients needs a transplant but cannot get a donor from within the family then we approach them datri for unrelated donors and within 24 hours we know about the availability