TIRUCHY: Certain incidents create a profound impact on a person's mind. On December 26, 2016, Kiran Verma (37) heard about a person from Raipur, who needed blood at a government hospital. After donating blood, he realised that the family had paid a middleman money for blood. He also found out that the man's wife had become a sex worker to pay her husband's bill. This prompted Kiran to quit his marketing job and take up the cause of blood donation, as he believes that no one should pay for blood or suffer owing to the lack of blood.
He started 'Simply Blood,' a virtual blood donation platform, connecting donors and seekers, without charging any money. This platform has helped more than 35,000 people to date. Kiran's motto is that nobody should die because of a lack of blood by 2025 in India.
"India needs at least 15 million blood donors every year, but only 10 million units are donated. Not all problems can be solved, but there are some which can be dealt with. There is a deficit of 10 million units of blood every year in the country. On the other hand, a platform like Tiktok had 700 million subscribers in India. We just need 1 per cent of that for blood donation. That is what triggered me. We need to connect the dots. So, I thought about spreading awareness of that by walking across the country and speaking to the youth," says Kiran.
He has embarked upon a 21,000-km journey, of which he has completed 2,200 km. He started his journey on December 28, 2021, from Thiruvananthapuram and reached Tiruchy on Friday. He has covered several districts in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He will be going to Thanjavur and Puducherry next.
"As many as 74 districts in the country don't even have blood banks. Even if blood banks are present, they are useless if people don't donate. I chose to walk so that I can interact more with people. I want to create a culture where people are sensitive, and understand the importance of blood, which can save lives," says Kiran.
He says this walk would be the longest blood awareness campaign ever carried out by an individual. He hopes to complete the campaign by 2024. In this quest, he has sacrificed time with his 4-year-old son and wife, apart from quitting a lucrative job.
He remembers Mayank, a teen who lost his life due to low platelet count and lack of donors. The teen was suffering from blood cancer and Kiran had donated blood to him once in 2017. However, he realised two months later that Mayank died as no one came forward to donate blood to him. In 2018, Kiran walked 6,000 km for the same cause.