Director Ravi Jadav’s son Ansh interacts with stem cell donor on his Birthday

Ansh Jadhav, son of film director Ravi Jadhav (Nude, National award winning Natrang and Hindi Banjo), was diagnosed with Acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL) when he was 13 years of age. Meghana Jadhav, Ansh’s mother gets very emotional whenever she speaks about her son’s journey and how they were lucky to find a match. Speaking on the occasion, Meghana said “Our world shattered when we were told that Ansh was suffering with Leukemia. Chemotherapy was not working for him and no one in our family was a match.  We did not have too much time so, we decided to go with another option available. Just a day before his treatment was about to start we got a call from our consulting doctor giving us the best news in our life. DATRI had had a matched donor for my son. It still brings tears to my eyes when I recall that day, we feel that God has come to us in the form of this donor. No word can do justice to how I feel. All I will say is that each one of us should register with DATRI to save many more patients like Ansh.” DATRI organized a birthday (17th April) surprise meet for the young cancer survivor Ansh Jadhav with his lifesaver Monish Shantilal Sara. Despite the difficult times DATRI did not want to miss the opportunity of making Ansh’s 16th birthday special, and DATRI’s team decided to go ahead and get the two meeting for the first time over a Zoom call.

Speaking on the occasion, a very excited Monish said, “I feel that God has blessed me to save someone’s life and I should go ahead with the donation as nothing can be more precious than saving a life. Initially, I was wondering if the donation will be difficult, but when DATRI explained the process, I was convinced and with the support from my family especially my wife I went ahead with the donation happily.  It was extremely heart warning to see him today. It gives me immense joy to know that he is doing well and leading a normal life because of a few hours of my time. Thank you DATRI once again for this initiative and giving me an opportunity to be a lifesaver. I would also like to thank DATRI volunteers, specially Varsha and Dev for taking very good care of me, not only during the donation, but before that and afterwards as well. during pre and post donation.”

Speaking during the call, beaming Ravi Jadhav, Ansh’s father said, “All this while we used to wonder if the donor was from Chennai or some other state, but today it we were pleasantly surprised when we discovered that Monish is not just from Mumbai but also our neighbour. We can wait for this lockdown to end to meet him and thank Monish and his family in person”.