Catching Up With Vinay & Sameer

As we said back in the day, nothing beats a good, solid success story. Well, I’m happy to report to the Mutiny that in BOTH Vinay and Sameer’s case, we’ve got some pretty solid success.

Team Vinay reports –

Hello everyone, this is Bharath (Vinay’s brother). Sorry for keeping many of you in the dark about Vinay’s progress.

…Day Zero is fondly known as “your new birthday”. That day was August 24, and the day Vinay received his transplant.

…For the good news…it appears that the bone marrow transplant is “engrafting”. His counts are showing signs of recovery and it is clear that the wonderful donors cells are now taking seed in his own marrow.

Sameer reports –

…Ladies and gentlemen, I was informed today that, through a miracle of God, a 10 out of 10 match has been found for me!!

Let that sink in for a second…this is truly a miracle that came through literally at the last minute. If this match had been found even next week, it’s not clear that it would have been in time given that I need some sort of transplant within 4 weeks.

…This match appears to have come from the 400+ bone marrow registration drives that Teams Vinay and Sameer have put forth, registering nearly 24,000 donors to-date.

…The result? An increase of South Asian representation in the national bone marrow registry by 20%.

A hearty SM congrats to both of them.

Mutineers – keep your fingers crossed and these guys in your thoughts & prayers — as far as they’ve come, they’ve still got a long way to go and can use the help. And, for every Vinay and Sameer that we write about, there are thousands of others we don’t so if you haven’t been swabbed yet, there are still opportunities to get it done.

11 thoughts on “Catching Up With Vinay & Sameer

  1. Great news!!! Congratulations to SM bloggers who mobilized and encoraged so many people to get on the registry. Best wishes to Vinay and Sameer.

  2. 20% increase? Impressive.

    Makes me proud and happy to be part of a generation willing to change things that much.

    Thanks Team Desi!

  3. this amazing news truly warms my heart and renews my faith in humanity. congratulations vinay and sameer. best wishes on a speedy recovery and you will remain in our thoughts and prayers 🙂

  4. A testament to the power of community. Thanks for the post, Vinod. Vinay & Sameer are in my thoughts & prayers every single day.

  5. I wish them continued success and best luck! Thanks for posting the update. It is so refreshing to hear good news.

  6. Thats great news. Nice to see the efforts of community being paid off.

    9 – Jay S:

    You are right, I think SM can use a ‘stiky posts’ kind of feature, where they list such community threads. Not a bad idea, whether its for sporadic readers or new comers or even regulars.

  7. You are right, I think SM can use a ‘stiky posts’ kind of feature, where they list such community threads. Not a bad idea, whether its for sporadic readers or new comers or even regulars.

    I think it is a bad idea. I foresee a situation where if we don’t include Cause “xyz”, there is trouble.

    How long of a sticky post should we have? Would our mobile users appreciate having to scroll through that, when trying to find the latest post? Whose cause is more deserving? Whatever we’ve done thus far has worked. I also agree that if someone needs to find something, they can use the search box which is near the top of the sidebar on the main page and at the bottom right of each post (near the comment box) to find what they need.

    Finally, as harsh as it sounds, this is not on topic. If you have suggestions, please email us. Thanks.

  8. If you’re truly interested in helping– then help, don’t flame. If you have comments or suggestions you feel compelled to make about what we “should do”, email us.

    Team Vinay agreed with and liked how we handled creating awareness for this cause; if they were satisfied, that’s what matters to me.

    This was supposed to be a happy thread. Further unsolicited advice about how to run this blog will be deleted. If everyone is done celebrating, and all people want to do is complain, this thread will close.