Friends 'beg' to raise Rs 25 lakh to save man's life

Shaik Khajavali, who is admitted at at CMC Vellore.

Friends of Shaik Khajavali are on mission of collecting Rs 25 lakh for him within two days so that he can undergo a life-saving surgery at the Christian Medical College (CMC) hospital at Vellore in Tamil Nadu. Khajavali of Anantasagar in Nellore district is diagnosed with very severe Aplastic Anemia, a type of blood disorder that is life threatening.

“So far we have collected Rs 1 lakh by begging door-to-door in the village,” Khajavali’s friend Shaik Javed told DH. One of his friends, who is a construction worker, says that Khajavali is poor and he is in no position to pay for the operation. Khajavali, son of Ali Imam Sha and Kalebi, studied up to class 10. He had to drop out of school to take care of the family. He is married to Haseena and has two daughters. His happiness was short-lived after he was diagnosed with leukemia.

“The best option for him is to undergo Allogeneic Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplant (PBSCT) as he doesn’t have suitable Human Leukocyte Antigens (HLA) matched sibling donor. (HLA matching is used to match patients and donors for blood or marrow transplants). The next option would be to undergo Haploidentical stem cell transplant using his sister as a donor,” Dr Fouzia, Associate professor, Department of Haematology CMC, Vellore in a letter said.

She added that donations can be sent to the Treasurer of CMC.

“We will keep on begging till we receive the required amount. There is no time. All we have is 48 hours. So we are going to meet the local MLA and also ministers from the district so that some funds can be released from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund,” Khajavali’s friend Niyaz said.