Dhenkanal: A 49-year-old man who is a resident of Dhushuri under Dhamnagar block in Bhadrak district is travelling across the country on a bicycle to spread a noble message among the youth: the advantages of blood donation.
Jayadeb Rout, who has already covered Bargarh, Sambalpur and Angul in Odisha, reached the blood bank at Dhenkanal District Hospital Saturday evening.
District Red Cross vice president Biranchi Narayan Pani, former municipality chairman Dr Premananda Sahoo, Sudhanshu Kumar Dalei, Mahesh Agrawal, Narayan Poddar, Raj Kishore Behera and other officials welcomed him.
After spending the night at Dhenkanal, he left for Cuttack Sunday morning.
“My journey will conclude in Kolkata in the third week of February,” he said before setting out for Cuttack.
Jayadeb, who was born in Kolkata, works at a jute factory in Hugli district.
Jayadeb said on several occasions he saw poor people running from pillar to post to arrange a unit of blood. In some other cases, patients died because their family members could not arrange blood.
He thought of doing something regarding it and that is the reason why he started a journey across the country to create awareness about blood donation.
“If one donates blood, it not only saves a needy patient’s life but also it keeps the donor healthy,” he said.
He started his journey from Barasat in Kolkata October 5, 2018. He reached Odisha after covering states such as Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, New Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
When asked about his experiences during the journey, he said, “I got warm welcome in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and some places of Odisha. Such gestures encouraged me to accomplish my goal.”
Regarding his bad experiences during the journey, Jayadeb said, “When I was about to reach Rairakhol, the pedal of my bicycle got broken and this made me to walk a long distance. On reaching Rairakhol, I got it repaired and then resumed my cycle journey.
“I know earlier itself that there would be difficulties. But I was firm that such disturbances would no way deter me from accomplishing my goal. If I can influence at least one person about the significance of going to a blood donation camp, I feel my labour bears fruit.”
PNN