Blood donation campaigner Verma on Nagaland tour

DIMAPUR — Kiran Verma, founder of Simply Blood, an application that mobilises blood donors in India, arrived in Dimapur on November 15, after walking over 17,400 km across 219 districts in India to create awareness on blood donation.

On December 28, 2021, Verma began a 21,000 km mission walk, to eliminate blood shortages in the country and ensure that “nobody should die waiting for blood in India after December 31, 2025.”

Starting out from Thiruvananthapuram, in Kerala, he has since traversed 17 states including Nagaland.

Upon arriving in Dimapur, Verma told Eastern Mirror that he met with the district deputy commissioner and addressed the shortage of blood in Dimapur. He suggested collaborative efforts with institutions, churches and civic bodies, to encourage more blood donation — an initiative that received assurance from the DC.

Verma also mentioned his upcoming visits to Kohima, Mon and several other districts, where there are no blood banks, as he believes that the citizens can be encouraged to actively participate in blood donation drives.

After Nagaland, he will be visiting Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and other parts of north east India.

Verma highlighted prevalent misconceptions about blood donation and emphasised on its safety, asserting that regular blood donation not only purifies the blood but also contributes to heart health.

He claimed that regular blood donation reduces the risk of developing cancer and diabetes, and delays the onset of wrinkles, particularly for women.

According to Verma, the 21,000 km walk is going to be the “longest blood awareness campaign ever by an individual in the world,” and will go on for more than two years.

To support his walk, Verma said that, so far, 126-blood donation camps have been organised in different parts of the country through which more than 26,722 units of blood have been collected.

Additionally, more than 9000 individual blood donors have donated blood in their personal capacity at different blood banks across India and abroad to support this campaign.

Noteworthy milestones include an invitation to the Kapil Sharma Show on April 9, 2023, and crossing three nations (Bangladesh, India and Nepal) in a single day on foot through the Siliguri corridor on June 19, 2023.

Narrating how he took the life-altering decision of quitting his job and starting his mission, Verma said that on December 26, 2016, he received a call informing him about a needy family from Raipur in Chhattisgarh, requiring blood in Delhi.

Responding to the call, he went to the hospital to donate blood for free. However, upon meeting the family later, he discovered that the individual who contacted him had charged INR 1500 for the blood donation. He also disclosed that the lady who paid for the blood had reportedly resorted to prostitution to cover her husband’s medical bills.

The incident, he said, was “hard to digest” and on the same day he decided to leave his job.

Verma went on to found ‘Change with One Foundation’ under which he runs two programmess – ‘Simply Blood’ and ‘Change with One Meal.’

Launched on January 29, 2017, Simply Blood is reportedly the world’s first virtual blood donation platform, connecting blood donors and seekers in real-time without any charges. Till date, the platform has more than 35,000 potential lives through blood donation, he maintained.

Change with One Meal is an initiative where they serve unlimited meals for INR 10 in Delhi, and till date, they have served more than 4 lakh meals.

Also read: National Voluntary Blood Donation Day observed in Kohima, Mokokchung