A kind 41-year-old differently-abled man from Mumbai has donated his blood 25 times since 2002. Pravin Bhandarkar, who works as an Executive Engineer in Mumbai?Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), has problems while speaking and his left hand is not fully functional since his childhood.
However, that never stopped him from helping out his community by donating blood which he started doing back when he was in college.
"First time while donating blood there was fear because of my disability. However, after I spoke to the doctor there and he assured me that I will be fine, I gave blood from my right hand. So, it was 2002 since I started donating blood. Till now I have donated about 25 times," he told?ANI.
In fact, Pravin's mother tried to make him stop because she was worried for his well-being but he continued to donate blood to save lives.?
"There were many times when my mom used to shout at me after getting to know about my blood donation as she was worried about my health," Pravin said.
He added, "My blood group is o+ which can be used for anyone this gives me immense satisfaction. So, when I came here to Mumbai I used to travel from my house Belapur to Dadar Hindmata as I was posted there. Hospitals like JJ, KEM Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital were very close so I used to donate blood there."
He has visited many blood donation camps amid the pandemic.
He also said, "I experience very unique satisfaction after donating blood, I remember coming out of Tata Memorial hospital and after looking at the faces of patients there I used to be happy that my blood will be used to cure them which gave me huge happiness. Even in this pandemic when there was a huge demand for blood I visited several camps and gave my blood. Being here at MMRDA my senior colleagues always supported me. I feel proud and can't say in words about my happiness."