Mumbai man, friends donate 63 bottles of blood to celebrate his birthday

Prashant Mhatre celebrates his birthday at JJ Hospital's blood bank

Forty-two-year-old Powai resident, Prashant Mhatre, decided to do something different this year for his birthday. Instead of throwing a party, he donated blood instead, and got all his friends to join in as well. At the end of the day, he succeeded in collecting almost 63 bottles of blood.

Mhatre, a facility manager, heard about blood donation from a friend. "I belong to a middle-class family as my father was a mill worker. I went to KEM Hospital and donated blood first on April 13, 1994, and when I returned home, my family was in shock," he says, adding, "Since then, I started donating blood at regular intervals, but I always made sure that I donate on my birthday."

As he has donated almost 76 times till now, his friends decided to join him this time. "We decided we'd all gather at JJ Hospital's blood bank and donate blood. During summers, there is a blood shortage in the hospital, and we tried to bridge this gap as well," said Ganesh Amdoskar, a friend of Mhatre. On Friday, they all marched to JJ. "I had planned that we should collect 50 bottles through this effort. To my surprise, we collected 63 bottles. Out of the 100 friends, A few were rejected due to high blood pressure and low hemoglobin, but I am satisfied that we got as much as we could," said Mhatre.

"Every year, we face shortage as there are few blood donation camps across city. But such efforts make all the difference," said Pratibha Ghorpade, Public Relation officer of JJ Blood Bank. "We urge others also to follow this."

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