15-Year-Old's Life & Dreams Could Be Cut Short By Rare Blood | Milaap
15-Year-Old's Life & Dreams Could Be Cut Short By Rare Blood Disorder
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    Created by

    Basanagoud
  • IF

    This fundraiser will benefit

    Iqra Fathima

    from Mangaluru, Karnataka

Iqra Fathima is able to live like a normal teenager for only 15 days in a month. During the other 15 days however, she becomes a very different person – she becomes weak, her skin looks darker, and she is unable to eat or drink normally. That is when they know it is time for her blood transfusions, without which she cannot survive.

 “She was very excited when school had finally re-opened after the pandemic. But she couldn’t go for long, as her disease started catching up with her and her dreams. She knows that her body is failing her, but she does not express any form of unhappiness. She believes she can beat this.” - Farhat, mother


Iqra Fathima has thalassemia major, a blood disorder in which there is production of less hemoglobin and fewer red blood cells in the body than normal. The life expectancy of someone with thalassemia major is usually just around 27 years. This makes the disease deadly in the case of 14-year-old Iqra, who is a young ambitious soul that wants to study well and make a name for herself.

Since she has been undergoing transfusions for the last three years (from the time she was diagnosed), iron deposits have formed under her skin that cause her darker appearance. These iron deposits can also accumulate in her heart and cause cardiac failure. As a well-read teen, Iqra is aware of all the complications of her disease. 
She also knows that a bone marrow transplant is the only permanent solution for her troubles – but her parents cannot afford the money needed for it.

Her condition has become so severe that she is now hospital bound

Presently, Iqra’s disease has advanced so much that she has been hospitalized for more than 10 days now. Her blood levels have become dismally low. She is being monitored continuously and is still undergoing blood transfusions. But they are not making her feel better, like they used to.

“She is becoming weaker and frailer with every passing day. This disease is dampening her energy…she does not have the will to even talk to us properly. Perhaps she is scared of what it will do to her, if she does not get the transplant soon.” - Farhat

'30 lakh rupees is completely beyond our reach… we are just helpless’

Iqra and her six-member family consisting of two brothers and a sister, do not have a house of their own; they live in an ancestral house along with extended family on her father’s side. Iqra’s father, Abdul Gaffar, works as a salesman in a textile shop in their hometown in northern Karnataka. Her mother is a homemaker. Their monthly income is just enough for food and school expenses of the children. They cannot afford the bone marrow transplant that Iqra so desperately needs to survive.

 
“Spending Rs 8,000 to Rs 12,000 on her blood transfusions alone burns a hole in our pockets. How will we afford 30 lakhs? It is completely beyond our reach but we want to save our daughter. She is a very good child who has big dreams, and we want her to achieve them.” - Abdul Gaffar

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