PESHAWAR: Artistes to raise awareness about thalassaemia
By Our Correspondent
PESHAWAR, Aug 3: Frontier's artistes have joined forces to motivate the people to donate blood for thalassaemia patients. This was announced by Professor Fakhruddin Durrani
, chairman of the Artistes Welfare Association Zoom (Awaz) at a function held at the Frontier Foundation Welfare Hospital and Blood Transfusion Services here on Tuesday.
"The children suffering from thalassaemia suffered a great deal, owing to the unwillingness of the healthy people to donate blood," he said. According to him, the people had this misconception that donating blood was harmful for health, but in fact it was good for human health to donate blood every three months.
Local singer, Gulzar Alam, announced that he had devoted his life to the welfare of the patients of thalassaemia, haemophilia and aplastic anaemia (blood cancer). He said that he would visit every nook and corner of the province to raise public awareness about blood donation.
Writer Younas Qiasi said that the people should give thanks for their healthy children. He said people should serve ailing children to earn the blessings of God.
Singer Gulreiz Tabassum, said that being a singer, he happened was flabbergasted to hear of the ordeal parents of thalasseamic children have to under go. He said that he along with his comrades in show business would render tireless services to help alleviate the sufferings of the children needing blood.
Medical Director of the foundation was of the view that most of the children suffering from thalassaemia didn't have the money to reach Peshawar, let alone pay for treatment. He said that they had provided about 4,000 blood bags to the children since its establishment one year ago.
Likewise, he added that the children also required several tests before transfusion of blood, which were conducted free of cost. "Initially, the children needed blood every six months or more, but with their growth, the duration of blood requirement comes down to three and two months," he said and added that in the prevalent circumstances, where blood is not available in the market, the people had foremost responsibility to generously donate blood to help the poor patients.
Foundation's administrator, Sahibzada Haleem said that it was a challenge for the healthy and philanthropists to deal with the problem of thalassaemia through hard struggle.
"Local customs has been hampering our efforts to collect more blood and treat the patient. However, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and we should not get dishearten," he said.
According to him, the people should avoid marriages between cousins, saying that 70 per cent of the disease was caused because of cousins' marriages. He suggested that the people should undergo genetic tests before marriage to avoid the birth of thalassaemia children.
EDO, Education, Haleem Shirazi, who attended the function on behalf of the District Nazim Azam Afridi, announced that district government would bear the expenses of the education of the children suffering from thalassaemia.
