DKMS and Sankalp Foundation celebrate milestone for children with thalassemia in India

2026-09-05 04:55:06 Health and Fitness

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Bengaluru, India, 4 September 2026 — One thousand children, one thousand families and one thousand new beginnings: Sankalp India Foundation has reached the milestone of 1,000 paediatric stem cell transplantations, giving children with severe inherited blood disorders such as thalassemia the prospect of a healthy life beyond regular blood transfusions and lifelong treatment. The milestone will be celebrated in Bengaluru on 5 September under the theme “1,000 Beginnings”. It also marks an important achievement in the more than ten-year partnership between Sankalp India Foundation and the international nonprofit organisation DKMS, together with medical and knowledge partner Cure2Children Foundation.

Of the 1,000 transplants carried out through Sankalp, DKMS has contributed to the transplantation costs of more than 820 children. Over the years, the collaboration has grown far beyond financial support for individual transplantations. Today, it spans thalassemia care, transplantation infrastructure and diagnostics, specialist training and clinical research.

“One thousand transplants show what long-term partnerships can achieve. Sankalp brings extraordinary local expertise and commitment, Cure2Children contributes vital medical knowledge, and together we can help turn access to cure into a reality for more children. This is exactly the kind of sustainable collaboration we want to build: in the country, for the country,” says Dr. Elke Neujahr, Global CEO of DKMS.

More than ten years of growing impact

Sankalp began its first paediatric bone marrow transplantation programme in Bengaluru in 2015 in partnership with Cure2Children. In the same year, the collaboration with DKMS started with free HLA typing and has since developed across the treatment pathway. DKMS supports HLA typing for patients and their families, thalassemia management and transplantation costs, and has invested in specialised paediatric BMT capacity and molecular diagnostics in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. The partners also collaborate on specialist training for nurses and, since 2025, on clinical research.

“For us, these 1,000 transplants are 1,000 beginnings and proof that cure can be made accessible when organisations combine their strengths with a shared purpose,” says Rajat Kumar Agarwal, President of Sankalp India Foundation. “Far more than numbers, this milestone validates our approach, showing that centres in resource-constrained settings can achieve world-class outcomes and internationally recognised quality while keeping transplantation affordable and accessible. Partnerships such as those with DKMS and Cure2Children are essential to this joint effort.”

Today, Sankalp cares for more than 3,000 children through 30 comprehensive thalassemia day-care centres and operates two paediatric BMT centres in Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. Its prevention network comprises 87 centres across 81 districts, and more than 220,000 couples have been screened.

International recognition for quality of care

Another important milestone demonstrates how the partnership has evolved from expanding access to systematically strengthening quality: the BMJH-Sankalp Centre for Pediatric Hematology Oncology and BMT in Bengaluru is the first programme in India to have achieved JACIE accreditation.

JACIE accreditation is internationally recognised in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy and demonstrates compliance with rigorous standards across clinical care, stem cell collection and processing, quality management and patient safety. The accreditation underlines that internationally benchmarked transplantation quality can be delivered sustainably in India and that excellent outcomes do not always require increasingly expensive or complex models of care.

One of 1,000 beginnings: Shaheem's story

Behind every transplantation is a child and a family. Muhammad Shaheem, from Karnataka, was diagnosed with severe thalassemia at just five months old. Years of regular transfusions eventually led to severe iron overload affecting his heart and liver, making transplantation particularly high risk. His younger sister Zara was identified as a full HLA-matched donor, and after intensive preparation and counselling at the Sankalp-BMJH Centre in Bengaluru, his family decided to proceed with the transplantation.

Shaheem's mother, Zareena, knows the burden of the disease herself as she lives with thalassemia major and continues to require regular treatment and blood transfusions. “As a mother, I wanted my son to have the chance of a life that is not determined by thalassemia. We were afraid, but the team gave us the confidence to move forward. Seeing Shaheem today makes that decision worth everything.”

The 1,000-transplant milestone represents both what the partnership has already achieved and its ambition for the future: enabling more children to reach curative treatment while strengthening the structures needed to provide high-quality care sustainably. For Sankalp, it is another major step towards its vision of a thalassemia- and hemoglobinopathies-free India by 2047.

Dr. Elke Neujahr, Global CEO of DKMS said that “Behind 1,000 transplants are 1,000 children and families whose lives have been changed. What makes this milestone particularly meaningful is how our partnership has grown over eight years. Sankalp brings outstanding local expertise and commitment, Cure2Children vital medical knowledge, and DKMS contributes its experience in HLA typing, transplantation, patient support and capacity building. Together, we are addressing different barriers along the patient journey and building structures that last. This is what partnership means to us: working with strong local partners to create sustainable solutions in the country, for the country.”

Rajat Kumar Agarwal, President, Sankalp India Foundation, said, “We call this milestone ‘1,000 New Beginnings’ because for every child and family, transplantation can be the beginning of an entirely different future. Our ambition has always gone beyond individual transplants. We want to connect prevention, comprehensive thalassemia care, donor identification and high-quality curative treatment. Our partnership with DKMS and Cure2Children has helped us expand access, strengthen infrastructure and diagnostics, and invest in quality and expertise. Reaching 1,000 transplants and achieving JACIE accreditation are important steps towards our vision of a thalassemia- and hemoglobinopathies-free India by 2047.”

Dr. Lawrence Faulkner, Founder and Medical Director, Cure2Children, said, “Bone marrow transplantation for children with severe thalassemia requires much more than medical technology. It requires highly trained teams, robust quality systems and the ability to deliver complex treatment reliably and sustainably. Our collaboration with Sankalp has always focused on developing local expertise and making high-quality transplantation accessible in a resource-conscious way. Together with the long-term support of DKMS, this programme has continued to grow in scale and quality. One thousand paediatric transplants are an impressive achievement, while JACIE accreditation demonstrates the maturity and quality the programme has reached.”

Patrick Paul, Executive Chairman, DKMS Foundation India, said, “For a child with thalassemia, finding a matching donor is a crucial step toward cure, but it is not enough. Families also need a clear path to transplantation and support to overcome the financial and practical barriers along the way. Through our Thalassemia Program, we provide free HLA typing and donor searches, while our Patient Funding Program helps eligible families with transplant and post-transplant costs. Working with partners such as Sankalp allows us to connect these different forms of support and help more children move from living with thalassemia towards the possibility of a cure.”

About DKMS

DKMS is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the lives of patients with blood cancer and blood disorders. It was founded in Germany in 1991 by Dr. Peter Harf and has since worked to ensure that more and more patients receive a lifesaving stem cell donation. More than 13.5 million potential donors are registered with DKMS, and to date, the organization has facilitated more than 135,000 blood stem cell donations. In addition to Germany, DKMS is active in the U.S., Poland, the U.K., Chile, India, and South Africa. Through international projects and support programs, DKMS provides even more people worldwide with access to lifesaving therapy. In addition, DKMS is committed to advancing medicine, science, and research to improve patients’ chances of recovery. In its state-of-the-art laboratory, the DKMS Life Science Lab, the organization sets global standards in the typing of potential stem cell donors to find the perfect match for a transplant.

About Sankalp

Sankalp India Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Bengaluru that is working for the cause of voluntary blood donation and treating children with blood disorders like thalassemia since 2003. Sankalp has set up a network of 30 not-for-profit day care centers across the country where over 3,000 children suffering from blood disorders receive equitable healthcare. The organization has been curing children through blood stem cell transplants on a nonprofit basis in its two centers (Bangalore and Ahmedabad) since 2015 and has organized more than 1,000 transplants for children in India.

Sankalp is also working on hemoglobinopathies prevention by offering targeted screening for inherited blood disorders for pregnant women. So far, they have tested over 220,000 couples to help identify and manage potential risks early.

About Cure2Children

Cure2Children, is a nonprofit organization, with the mission of bringing cure to children with cancer and severe blood disorders. The organization, based in Florence, Italy, operates globally. It was launched in 2007 by a group of parents who lost their child to cancer, in collaboration with a pediatric hematologist-oncologist, Dr. Lawrence Faulkner. Cure2Children has enabled the set-up of several bone marrow transplantation units in low- and middle-income countries across South-East Asia, the Middle East and Africa. To date, 1,800 bone marrow transplantations have been performed, primarily severe Thalassemia syndromes in children below the age of 18.

About BMJH

Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital (BMJH), Vasanthnagar, is a charitable tertiary-care super-specialty referral hospital in Bengaluru, offering comprehensive medical and surgical services. It is managed by the Bhagwan Mahaveer Memorial Jain Trust, established in 1975 to commemorate the 2,500th anniversary of Lord Mahaveer and to provide accessible and affordable healthcare, particularly to people in need.

The hospital was inaugurated in 1990 and has since developed into a major referral centre combining specialist clinical expertise, modern technology and compassionate, patient-centred care. Guided by its vision of service through the continual advancement of technology and professional knowledge, BMJH remains committed to delivering high-quality healthcare without losing sight of affordability.