As I already wrote, I've been to Hyderabad with Pietro Sodani to see what we have to do to setup a Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) center for our new social business called "Cure Thalassemia". This was my fifth trip to South Asia in less than 2 years (1 in Pakistan, 2 in India and 2 in Bangladesh) to see what we can be done to cure Thalassemia children.
It is hard to to describe in a few words my feelings and my thoughts, since it has been an amazing trip and, from what I've seen, we should be able to start curing the first thalassemia children within 6-9 months.
At the airport
When we landed, a dozen people where waiting for us, most of them from Mr. Chandrakant Agrawal family; they also prepared a big poster with our names in it!
Thalassemia parents, 3 minute standing ovation for Pietro
During our visit something happened that we didn't expect. There was a planned meeting with hundreds of parents of Thalassemia children; when Pietro entered the room, there has been a 3 minute standing ovation, something amazing. Pietro hardly was able to talk during his speech, because of the big emotion and tears. it is something that is very hard to explain in words, you should have been there.
Press conference with 7 TV and 15 newspapers
We had a press conference with 7 TV channels and 15 newspapers. They asked many questions, and I've noticed that most journalists are very interested in the fact that we came from a far and rich country to build a self sustainable social business (that means that we will never get a profit, just a salary in case), like definied by the Nobel Prize Prof. Yunus. I didn't expect so much interest for this topic, it was even more important than the fact that we plan to cure thalassemia children, since we are not a charity and will not rely on donor's money.
Hospitals
We have visited 3 hospitals and 1 Thalassamia association, and had meetings with:
- Narayana Hrudayala, Dr. A. Raghuvanshi (Vice Chairman) and Dr. Anil Kumar Mulpur (Vice President and clinical director)
- Star Hospital, Dr. Gopichand Mannam, Director
- Nice Children Hospital, Dr. Padmanabh Reddy, CEO
- Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Society Dr. Suman Jain, secretary
All the doctors where very kind with us, and they told us that they know Pietro for his work in BMT (he works since 10 years with Prof. Lucarelli, the inventor of BMT for thalassemia, and he has developed the new mismatch donor protcol recently published in Blood magazine).
They are modern and well equipped, and we will choose one of them. They also said that they respect that we are not motivated by money.
Mr. Chandrakant family
We spent some time where Mr. Chandrakant Agrawal lives, 21 people (10 adults and 11 children) in the same house! We had a great time, everybody was so nice with us, especially the children. I hope to come back soon.
Our dream team
In every meeting, our team of indian friends and partners was composed by:
- Chandrakant Agrawal, entrepreneur
- Dr. Sailesh Singi, Oncologist
- Madhu Mantri, Chartered Accountant
- Rajesh Vyas, Lawyer
- Dr. Suman Jain, Thalassemia society
The last day we had an informal board meeting to discuss the next steps, and I'll write more in the next weeks.
I'm very happy, and I'm confident that we will start as soon as possible. I'll do my best.
Another adventure has just started.
