Abbas (left) getting an award for providing blood to Coimbatore government hospital
For Abbas, it has been a struggle to find blood with compatible blood groups, but he never gives up.
Abbas from Coimbatore has supplied about 1.5 lakh units of blood in different districts in Tamil Nadu in the last 16 years. A flower seller, he begins his day selling flowers at the Coimbatore flower market till he gets a call from a patient or an attender of a hospital who tells him about the need for blood. For Abbas, it has been a struggle to find blood with compatible blood groups, but he never gives up. How does he provide blood? “I know people in different districts, I have saved their numbers with their blood groups, so I ask them to go and give their blood to those patients,” he replies. Abbas has been providing blood to different hospitals in Coimbatore, Mettupalayam, Madurai and Chennai. His patients include people with cancer, Thalassemia and many more diseases. A child with Thalassemia has been receiving AB positive blood for the last seven years, thanks to Abbas. Abbas began providing blood in 2000. He had gone to meet his uncle in the hospital when he saw a seven-year-old-child, bleeding from an injury in his stomach. “The boy’s family pleaded to me to give my blood and I did. That day I realized there are so many people who are in need of blood, so why not help them out?” he says. Asked about the expenses involved in pursuing this noble cause, Abbas says that the only cost is the amount spent in making calls to people. He has been awarded many times for his work. In 2014, he was given the Governor’s Award.
Abbas donates his blood every three months and has done it 25 times now. He had to stop recently because of his sinus problem.
COMMENTS