Bengaluru: Lourd Vijay, a 41-year-old professional dancer, is now on a mission to inspire others to pledge their organs.
Vijay, who himself had undergone a kidney transplant, will set on a 9,000-kilometre long journey from Chennai to Ladakh and aims to inspire million to pledge their organs. He will begin his journey on World Organ Donation Day, on Sunday.
"Having undergone the ordeal, I know how difficult it is. It was only after I was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and started taking dialysis I realised the need for awareness," he told reporters. He used to undergo dialysis thrice a week and life had come to a standstill. After undergoing a transplant he decided to form a non-profit trust called Spreading Hope, which aims at getting more people to pledge to donate and spread awareness about kidney failure. "There are very subtle signs at first and I did not give much importance to it thinking it to be something to do with dancing and fatigue. By the time I got to know it was too late," he said. But the disease changed the way Lourd looked at life. "My mission is to help people convince their families and willingly register as organ donors," he said.
