AT THE age of 80, Jasmine Majethia doesn’t use a smartphone and relies on her grandchildren to book a cab for her when she steps out of her home in the Pune suburb of Bavdhan. But when it comes to helping children affected with thalassaemia – a genetic blood disorder – Majethia is a wall of support for hospitals and charitable trusts across Maharashtra over the last 40 years.
Thalassaemia affects more than 1 lakh children in the country, according to a paper published in the Paediatric Hematology Oncology journal.
The disorder appears in two types, according to Dr Nita Munshi, Thalassaemia Society, Pune chapter. “Thalassaemia major patients suffer excessive destruction of red blood cells (RBCs) leading to severe anaemia. The disease is life-threatening, if untreated. Thalassaemia minor is a less serious form, and normal people would not know unless they undergo special tests,” says Munshi.
Read more of the noble work that Majethia is doing in a report by Anuradha Mascarenhas published in The Indian Express....
