This dancer is on a 9,400-km journey to spread organ donation awareness

One in ten adults in India is at the risk of contracting kidney disease. Despite its high incidence, there is barely any awareness, leading to people like Lourd Vijay having to wait for close to three years to get a transplant.

The dancer and holder of a Guinness World Record was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease in 2013 and started undergoing dialysis. In 2016, he received a donor's kidney and underwent a transplant at Manipal Hospital, Bengaluru. Though it was a painful process, he was at least privileged enough to be able to wait that long and afford the dialysis before getting a kidney. The same cannot be said for most Indians.

That is why Vijay is on a mission to spread awareness about the importance of organ donation by embarking on a 9,400-km journey from Tamil Nadu to Ladakh. According to Daily News and Analysis, he said,

“I aim to inspire more than 10 million people to pledge their organs and save lives. While creating awareness, I share my story and experience to convince people to donate their organs. In the south, most of the people are aware of it but in the north, there are few people who are aware of the cause.”

Through Spreading Hope Foundation, he aims to cover 13 cities, 17 towns, and 18 villages in 40 days. The aim is to engage with educational, healthcare, corporate, and governmental institutions and motivate them to support his cause. This way he plans to make sure that more people enrol as ambassadors to promote organ donation. In an interview with The Indian Express, he said,

“Battling the illness for more than three years and going through an organ transplant was a traumatic experience for me. This chronic kidney disease has changed the way I look at life. It has given me a new purpose and that’s how I started ‘Spreading Hope'...”

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