Nani Vavdi is a very small village near the Morbi city in the western part of Gujarat. Bhaudeep a school auto rickshaw driver, and his wife Varshaba have two children. The second one, Kamaraj, at 6 months of age became pale and cranky. He was diagnose with thalassemia and started on monthly transfusions. Eventually the family contacted Sankalp India Foundation which raised most of the funds needed for a bone marrow transplant, in the 12.000 USD range, which was carried out on 29 June 2019 in our Ahmedabad partner center (see News section). Kamaraj just turned 4 years and is a normal child.

Starting from my 25th weeks of pregnancy Adrianne needed to undergo intrauterine blood transfusion three times a week. At birth on 28th August 2013, she was diagnosed as having heart failure and hydrops fetalis, and at 4 months of age, she was officially diagnosed with Alpha Thalassemia Major at Sheikh Khalifa Medical Center (SKMC), Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates. For the first 4 years of her life, she received painful routine blood transfusion every 3 to 4 weeks, sending her into crying fits and with a lot of complications. Unfortunately, no one in my family was a perfect match. My husband and Adrianne’s older brother were both only 50% match while I’m 70-80% compatible. The UAE government was fully supportive but upon one condition: we needed to find a full match donor. Our search for 100% full match commenced but in vain. Luckily for us, a friend from our church had shared with us the information about a Filipino-Canadian family who had almost the same case as Adrianne’s: A family member who had BMT with another sibling but was a failure. Then luckily enough they had a donor from DKMS. Through Facebook, I immediately sent an e-mail to DKMS regarding Adrianne’s case. By the way, the United Arab Emirates, where we were resididing, do not have a BMT center. Furthermore, since we are expatriates, we only have a slim chance to be provided with treatment outside the UAE. After 1 week, Ms. Annegret Werzner of DKMS graciously responded to my email. She took our information details, even gave me uplifting words of hope and wisdom. When she finally called to inform us that the DKMS CEO has given approval for Adrianne’s free treatment, my husband and I were overwhelmingly ecstatic! We couldn’t thank God enough for this miracle through DKMS. Dr. Lawrence Faulkner of Cure2Children Foundation took over the whole process until a BMT schedule was provided to us. It took a while before the magnitude of this miracle finally sank into my whole being. I was crying on our Skype meeting with Dr. Lawrence especially when he reassuringly said, “Mama, please don’t cry, it’s not 100 percent guaranteed but results are promising“. Even until now whenever I remember Dr. Lawrence’s comforting words it causes a floodgate of tears to burst open. God indeed provides an anointing of ease where things fall into place. Another friend from our Church based in India and group of Filipino kindly offered to assist us during our stay in Bangalore, India. Everything was provided for Adrianne, she was 4 years old by then. Had Adrianne not received a BMT procedure, she would be forever tied to blood transfusions and to fighting its consequences. Praise and thank God, to Dr. Lawrence, Dr. Stalin and his Medical Team’s exemplary skills and expertise, our most beloved Adrianne had a successful BMT procedure on November 23, 2017 at Sankalp-People Tree Hospitals BMTU, Bangalore, India. Adrianne is a living testimony that God indeed works miracles through the skilful medical interventions from SKMC doctors headed by Dr. Naser Al Zein, Cure2Children’s Dr. Lawrence Faulkner, Sankalp India BMTU’s Dr. Stalin Ramprakash, DKMS organization and coordinators Ms. Annegret Werzner, Mr. Tobias Riethmuller and all the other great people who played a role in our Adrianne’s journey of healing. Adrianne is now a strong, healthy 7 years old, 3 years Post-BMT and a precociously smart girl, a born leader in her school and bossing us around in our home, too!

Raju works as an unskilled labourer and Ganga is a housewife. they live in a small village in the Dharwad district. Yashwant was born in 2009, 2 years after their marriage, and when he was a few months old he started getting getting frequently ill and increasingly pale. At the local hospital he was diagnosed with thalassemia, the family had to travel 25 km to get their child transfused. Eventually they were referred to our center at People Tree Hospital in Bangalore. Yashwant's sister was found to be fully compatible, funds were raised, and he was transplanted on 26 June 2019. He received his last transfusion on 9 August 2019 and is doing well since.