Kidney patient puts her best foot forward

Mumbai: Shibani Gulati, who is one of the participants at Sunday’s Standard Chartered marathon, underwent a kidney transplant in 2010, where her brother was her donor.

This is her fourth year, and she will be participating in the half marathon. She is choosing to avail the charity from Apex Kidney Foundation, an NGO. The NGO helps underprivileged patients by paying for procedures and post-surgery requirements like dialysis, and medication.

Talking to The Asian Age, Shibani said, “ It feels great, this is the time when you spread a word of awareness, this is my fourth year, and I would be running in future also.” “In the year 2010 I went through transplant and my younger brother was the donor, now we both are happy and living a healthy life. So I want to urge people to come out and participate in organ donation,” added Shibani.

Using the platform of Sunday’s marathon, few citizens have decided to promote education. Karthik Raja, an 11th standard student in Isha Vidhya Erode School, lost his father to cancer in 2013. He needed financial support to continue his studies. Kameshwar Rao stepped in to sponsor Karthik’s studies. After receiving financial aide, Kartik came 3rd in 10th Board exams with 96.4% marks. “By running in marathon we are spreading awareness so that people can come ahead and sponsor such more children,” added Lipika.