Stem cell processing equipment donated to Bengaluru hospital

Team Rotary News

Under Project Hope, RC Bangalore Lakeside, RID 3190, donated equipment for stem cell harvesting and autologous stem cell transplantation. The `1 crore project was undertaken in collaboration with the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology in Bengaluru and made possible with CSR funding from two corporates, Virtusa Corporation and Embitel Technologies.

The Kidwai Institute was previously outsourcing stem cell processing, “but now our club’s Project Hope has made the hospital self-sufficient. We have provided an apheresis machine and ultra-low temperature freezers to the hospital,” says club president Prasanna Marar.

Dr Vasundhara Kailasnath, a paediatric oncologist at the hospital, thanking the club, explains that stem cell transplantation is a vital mode of treatment for a variety of diseases, including cancer, blood and immune system disorders.

It is used to treat cancer patients who have received very high doses of chemotherapy. “Chemotherapy destroys not only cancer cells

A job fair in Mandvi

but also healthy cells, including blood-forming stem cells. Stem cell transplantation replenishes the body’s supply of healthy stem cells, allowing patients to recover from chemotherapy and receive further treatment,” adds Dr Vasundhara.

Rotary Club of Mandvi, RID 3054, celebrated Rotary’s 118th founding day on Feb 23 by organising a job fair in the city. Around 500 candidates attended the event and 150 of them were shortlisted by various companies, said club president Tejas Vasani and complimented the project chairmen Bhavin Ganatra, Akshay Maheta and Hariom Aboti. Industrialist Shailesh Suraiya inaugurated the job fair which had a participation of companies such as Reliance Retail, Vodafone, ICICI Bank, Britannia Industries and Dorf Ketal Chemicals, and other local entrepreneurs and hospital managements. The Kutch District Employment Office and the Mandvi Industrial Training Institute also were associated in organising the job fair.