When Ravi Bhanot’s mother had a critical pregnancy and only a blood donation from a stranger saved the lives of mother and baby it changed his life too. He wanted to repay the kindness of the person who gave his mother blood. Ravi was excited to give blood only to be told he could’nt. Having been born in Kenya and having malaria antibodies in his blood excluded him from giving blood.
Chigwell, Essex based Ravi committed to leading the campaign for more Black Asian and Minority People to partake in blood and organ donations across London and Essex. 480 adults from BAME backgrounds donated blood in 2019. This is about half of all those that gave blood in the preceding 3 years put together. Through his efforts there has been the highest number of the BAME donating organs after death and a record number of BAME lives saved with organ transplants in East London.
Mr Bhanot identified that people of ethnic minority backgrounds often suffer more from underlying health conditions such as diabetes and sickle cell disease resulting in a need for blood and organ donors. However, there is often a lack of suitable donors coming forward from the BAME background.
Ravi Bhanot also saw that one other major reason for premature deaths in the BAME Community was due to heart attacks . To help prevent these he co founded the first national free Coronary Pulmonary Resusitation (CPR) training charity – Make It Beat. This gives training in different languages, trainers come to the Community Groups and it targets particularly the highest risk BAME community.
Ravi said “it’s an honour to be made an MBE for services to “Wellbeing and Community Action including during the COVID-19 Response” – it represents a validation that what we’re doing is making a difference and having an impact on people’s lives. We hope this recognisiton will encourage even more people from the BAME communities to donate blood and organs. and learn CPR.”
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Well done Ravi, something unique in our borough and for our community. This should be national news which I am sure it is and will inspire many in a similar situation to give back what one receives