World Blood Donor Day: Meet 32-year-old ‘ASHA’ who has saved 28 lives in Kashmir

Srinagar: Bilqees Ara vividly remembers the day she donated two pints of blood to save two lives in 2014. One of them was her son and another was a patient who was battling for life. On that day, she realized how life-saving a blood donation could be.

It was during the floods when her son, who was two years old then, went into a coma at GB Pant Hospital, Srinagar. “That day, I donated blood to my son. But his chances of survival were bleak. Next to him, another 10-year-old boy was battling for life and was in dire need of A-positive blood. I came forward though I had been forbidden not to do so. As a rule, one can only donate again after three months. I thought even if my son doesn’t make it through, this child will get a new lease of life,” she said.

Not only did this boy survive, Bilqees’s son too recovered from a coma after 28 days. “It was a miraculous recovery. The incident firmed my resolve to donate blood for the rest of my life so that nobody ever dies due to paucity of blood at hospitals,” she said.

And since then she has not looked back. An Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) from Gundchabotra village of Handwara Tehsil in Kupwara district, Bilqees, 32, has voluntarily donated blood 28 times to date and participated in countless blood donation camps across the valley. 

Doctors said Bilqees’ blood donation has greatly benefited the expecting mothers in particular. Besides, she has motivated hundreds of others from her district to come forward for the cause. 

“In today’s world, we all live for ourselves, but it gives immense pleasure helping the needy and bringing smiles on the faces of others. I associated myself with the cause of blood donation as human blood cannot be prepared in any factory, and only a human can help a human when blood is needed,” she said.