#WorldThalassemiaDay: Vadodara boy ropes in celebs to spread awareness

Vadodara’s Partth Thakur, a thalassemia major patient who requires blood transfusions every 15 days, has always done his bit to promote awareness about thalassemia. And this World Thalassemia Day, the youngster, who was also the brain behind starting Gujarat’s first comprehensive thalassemia wellness foundation, has managed to rope in a few Bollywood as well as Gujarat celebrities to promote awareness about thalassemia.Talking about it, Partth tells us, “This time, we are running a social media campaign called #AadhiwaliZindagiMitao, where we are requesting people to post a photograph of their face cropped to half, and tag three others to do the same. The half face is to remind people to consult a doctor before planning a child. When both the husband and wife have thalassemia minor, there is a 25% chance that their child will have thalassemia major and will not live beyond 30 years. This can be avoided, and people should do this much for the future of their child.”
He adds, “We approached a few celebrities for this social media campaign and the likes of Sonakshi Sinha, Kunal Kapoor, Huma Qureshi and Manasi Parekh Gohil readily agreed to support the cause by posting their photos. Sonakshi even recorded a video for us, where she spoke about how it is unfair on the kids to be a victim of thalassemia for no fault of theirs. I am also indebted to Gujarati celebrities like Shrenu Parikh, who have always supported our activities. With celebrities joining in, I am optimistic that we will be able to achieve our objective about spreading awareness about thalassemia.”