Saving lives, this blood donor hits century

Bengaluru: His friends call him the vampire as his late night calls often take them to hospitals to donate blood and on weekends  while others may spend time in  a restaurant or pub he is out donating blood at a hospital or special camp.  Meet 45-year-old Karthik Shekhar R., who has made it a mission to donate blood and save people’s lives. Having started as a teenager at 18, when he first donated blood at a camp in his engineering college, he has since gone on to donate blood a 100 times and is showing no signs of giving it up.

“Whenever I get a call or WhatsApp message in the blood donor group, I either donate myself or ask my friends for help. Once I donated blood to my friend's mother without realising who she was and when he got to know it was very moving,” he smiles.

The donation is a reward in itself, according to him.  He recalls the time when he was called to the MS Ramaiah Hospital one late rainy night to donate blood to a road accident victim. “The family was very poor and the mother was so happy with the donation that she wanted to buy fruits for me. That night I was convinced about the power of blood donation. Knowing that your blood has helped young cancer patients  makes you believe in the good that little things can do,” he says.

Encouraging people to donate blood, he explains that it is actually healthy to do so. 

“There are studies which suggest that donating blood twice a year can reduce your chances of getting a heart attack by 80 per cent. So in a way, it also a health insurance,” he concludes.