Doctor to sell photos to help needy

CHENNAI: When Dr P Srinivasan, managing director of Jeevan Blood and Stem Cell Bank, first shot a photograph of his brother on a park bench, he never imagined that he would one day become an award-winning amateur shutterbug whose hobby could help people in need.
For the past four years, he has taken breaks from his hectic schedule at least twice a year to venture deep into forests in India and Africa and shoot pictures of wild animals, birds and landscapes.The pictures have won him several prizes from the Photographic Society of Madras — and he hopes it will now help him fulfil his dream to provide stem cells for therapy free to needy patients.
Dr Srinivasan hopes to raise at least Rs 10 lakh by selling his pictures in a week-long exhibition at Lalit Kala Academy that will start on April 30. The photographs of various wild animals including lions, tigers, hyenas, elephants, leopards and birds printed on archival paper will be sold from Rs 15,000 onwards. He also plans to release a coffee table book by the end of May.
Although Dr Srinivasan taught himself photography, he did not make it his profession, but completed his studies in medicine instead. Between 1985 and 2007, he put his camera aside. But during a trip with friends to Nallapally, on the Tamil Nadu-Andhra Pradesh border, he renewed his interest in photography. Since then he has made regular visits to forests with his camera.
“Taking nature pictures is my passion. I hope this will help me raise funds for sick and needy patients. Many patients in India with blood diseases like cancer and thalassemia die because they can’t afford treatment. My public stem cell bank will attempt to help hundreds of such patients,” said Dr Srinivasan.
In February 2009, Dr Srinivasan, who headed a successful blood bank, started a public stem cell bank that collected cord blood as donations from maternity hospitals. Women, who can’t afford to preserve cord blood in a private bank donated cord blood to Jeevan Blood and Stem Cell Bank. Stem cells, capable of developing into different kinds of cells and tissues, are used to cure some life-threatening blood diseases.
The bank spends nearly Rs 30,000 to collect and process each unit of cord blood. The cost of harvesting cord blood is Rs 8,500 and tissue typing costs Rs 7,000. Stem cells have a shelf life of 24 years if they are stored at -196º Celsius.