Kiran Verma is walking across the country to spread awareness on blood donation. Everyday thousands of people die in India due to lack of blood and more than lakhs of units of blood are wasted every year due to lack of co-ordination between blood banks and hospitals. To bridge this gap and spread awareness about blood donation, Kiran has embarked on a journey across the country on foot. He began his journey on January 26 from Srinagar’s Lal Chowk and after traversing many states reached Bengaluru recently.

Kiran Verma belongs to lower-middle class family and lost his mother to cancer when he was seven-years-old. It was then he took a pledge to save many lives as possible during his lifetime. He started donating blood and became a regular blood donor. Later, he realised that many blood donation camps were organised with a noble message, but the collected blood was sold on the black market. In December 2016, his WhatsApp group was flourishing but soon he came face-to-face with the harsh reality of how the need for blood is exploited. It was then he decided to start an online blood bank and in January 2017, Simply Blood – a user-created database of blood donors – saw the light of the day. Using GPS technology, the app locates the user’s position both for a donor or a recipient. A person in need of blood no longer needs to contact hundreds of donors, this location-based app helps them find the donor nearest to their location in simple steps.

In an interview, Kiran said, “My aim is to get at least 15 people to pledge blood donation once a year. By the time I reached Bengaluru, I have covered around 15,000 km walking and meeting people. My only motivation is to be able to add around 1.5 lakh donors during this journey.” He further added, “I have facilitated many donations in Bengaluru and after visiting the place, I realised that are many people who want to donate blood. I am positive that after my session in the city my database will expand and will the people here. From here, I will go to Mysuru and then to Kerala. This journey has taught me lot as an individual and I hope it will help me give back to the society in my own small way.”

Since its launch, the app has facilitated 2,000 blood donations in 11 countries. Kiran has started his journey on foot to get more donors, and to let people know about his app so that they don’t fall prey to touts when in need of blood. Simply Blood aims to save one million lives by 2020. For that, Kiran and his team started an ambassador programme called, ‘Simply Blood Ambassador Program’ to encourage people to invite more people to register.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 09, 2018 10:50 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).