THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 1990s Gulf War forced T T Basheer to return from Kuwait to his native village of Kappad. Along with financial loss, he came back battling kidney failure. What began as a personal struggle on the dialysis table after his third transplant, turned into a mission that has since transformed the lives of thousands of kidney patients across the state.
Basheer’s initiative, the Pratheeksha Organ Recipients Family Association (PORFA) Charitable Trust, now provides dialysis, medicines, and affordable transplant support to the poor. Today, PORFA counts more than 20,000 members.
With assembly elections round the corner, the 63-year-old is on a different kind of campaign trail, meeting political parties and urging them to include measures for kidney patients in their election manifestos.
Among the key demands are policy changes to support the rising number of patients, ensuring the availability of essential medicines through Karunya Pharmacy, dialysis centres at PHC level, free transplatation schemes and reinstatement of the Karunya Benevolent Fund.
The crisis is staggering. The number of dialysis patients has risen from 43,740 in 2020 to 218,410 in 2024 — a more than fourfold increase. Studies suggest that for every 10 lakh people there are approximately 8,000 kidney patients, and more than 80% come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This makes kidney disease not just a health issue, but a pressing social challenge.
Basheer himself seized the gravity of the situation after encountering the plight of patients with poor means, a turning point that shaped his resolve.
After returning home, he was diagnosed with kidney disease. His mother, Nafeesa, donated a kidney for his first transplant in Chennai in 1991, but treatment options were limited then, and the first two transplants failed. In 2011, his brother Kasim donated a kidney for a third transplant, after which Basheer shifted his dialysis treatment to the Kozhikode Government Medical College Hospital.
“I was moved by the agony of patients on dialysis. I decided that if I survived, I would dedicate my life to helping others who share the same pain,” Basheer recalls.
True to his word, he started the Dialysis Patients Guidance Forum in 2012. Later, he left his business in Muscat and devoted himself to charitable work. Since 2018, PORFA has partnered with private hospitals and NGOs across Kerala to provide subsidised treatment and free medicines. The trust has distributed free dialysers worth Rs 75 lakh and medicines worth Rs 35 lakh.
PORFA’s ambitions continue to grow. The trust will launch a programme to make kidney transplants normally costing up to Rs 7 lakh available for Rs 3 lakh. Patients unable to raise the full amount will receive sponsorship support of up to Rs 1 lakh. Basheer has also initiated Kerala’s first statewide campaign for early detection of kidney and liver diseases, with 16 liver transplants already facilitated.
Alongside these efforts, he is preparing to release the fourth edition of his memoir, ‘A Life Filtered Through Three Kidney Transplants’.