In September, The News Minute together with Ketto helped raise Rs 9.86 lakh for the treatment of 11-year-old Aniketh, who suffers from a rare blood cancer.
The funds raised would not have been possible if not for the generous contribution of many readers.
Aniketh was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, nearly two years ago at the age of 9. Myelodysplastic syndrome or MDS is a kind of cancer in which the blood marrow doesn’t produce enough healthy blood cells. As a result, an MDS patient does not have enough healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets, leaving him/her exposed to infection, anaemia, and prone to easy bleeding.
Hailing from Alipurduar in North Bengal, Aniketh’s family packed their bags to Chennai when doctors in Cooch Behar told them there was little they could do for him. Since March 2015, Aniketh has been undergoing treatment at the Apollo Hospital in Chennai.
The sum of Rs 20 lakh for Aniketh’s transplant together with his treatment costs was far out of reach for Aniketh’s parents. His father, Arjun, who was working at Rose Valley Private Ltd in Alipurduar, lost his job in 2009 when the company closed operations. His mother, Sujita is a homemaker.
Hearing his story, The News Minute together with Ketto, an online fundraising platform run by Varun Gupta and Kunal Kapoor, started a campaign for Aniketh. In just over a month, the campaign raised Rs 9,86,898 with 250 donors contributing. Contributions came in from different parts of the world, with people donating even Rs 100 to save a child’s life. The highest donation of Rs 1 lakh was contributed by an anonymous donor and another sum of Rs 1 lakh by Prithvi Jeevanantham.
A sum of Rs 5,43,564 plus $5,145.17(331,839.80 INR) was transferred to Arjun Mahatao’s account. The breakup of the deductions are as follows: Ketto Fee + Payment gateway fees + Service tax + Swachh Bharat cess + Krishi Kalyan cess + USD Amount bank charges Ketto campaign link.
Aniketh underwent a bone marrow transplant at the Apollo Hospital in Chennai on October 25.
Although, the transplant had only a 50% success rate, Arjun Kumar Mahatao, his father, who was a “half match”, donated bone marrow cells, in the hope that it would give his son a chance for a new life.
Unfortunately, Aniketh’s transplant has failed. In an email sent to The News Minute, his doctor said, “I wish to place my sincere thanks to all the donors who have helped Aniketh. Unfortunately, his new bone marrow cells have not taken up and the transplant has failed. Aniketh is now critically ill but it is his special request to send this message of thanks to each donor who has at least given him this chance to fight for his life.”
(Not just TNM, but Rs 25 lakh was raised by crowd funding platform Milaap too)