CHENNAI: Chennai cyclists, ahoy! One of the largest paid cycling events held in the city, Datri Gift a Cycle to Gift a Life 2019, will be held on Sunday at 4 am. Datri, a stem cell donors registry, has been conducting the cycling event every September from 2014 to mark World Marrow Donor Day, where cyclists participate to create awareness about blood stem cell donation which can be a cure for blood cancer, thalassemia, sickle cell anaemia and other blood disorders.
“The cyclists have to pay a registration fee of Rs 600 if they have their cycle or Rs 950 if they want to rent a cycle. They will be cycling from Taramani to Mamallapuram and back, spreading awareness on stem cell donation. All the proceedings of the event will be used towards the cause. So far we have 700 registrations and there is an option of on-spot registrations too,” said Rajalakshmi Karthikeyan from Datri.
The event scaled up from 30 cyclists in 2014 to 700 cyclists who have registered this year. They witness maximum participation from the city cycling groups, corporates and colleges. The major attraction of the event this year is that eight-year-old year Abhinav G will cycle his first 100 km. His previous record was in the Asian Book of Records and Indian Book of Records for longest non-stop cycling — 81.7 km in 3 hours 32 minutes.
The probability of finding a matched blood stem cell donor is one in 10,000 to one in two million. Every match is close to a miracle. If a match is found, that identified donor is probably the only person who can save the patient. More than one lakh patients are waiting to find their lifesavers. For details, call 9790757879
Behind stem cell donation
Datri, a stem cell donors registry, has been conducting Datri Gift a Cycle to Gift to mark World Marrow Donor Day. Blood stem cell donation which can be a cure for blood cancer, thalassemia, sickle cell anaemia and other blood disorders. The probability of finding a matched blood stem cell donor is one in 10,000 to one in two million. More than one lakh patients await their lifesavers.