13 Facts About Devaanshi Mehta

Devaanshi Mehta was a British - Indian student and humanitarian.

Devaanshi Mehta started the Asian Donor Campaign, a UK-based non-profit organisation whose goal is to raise awareness for the need to get more Asians to donate their blood, bone marrow and organs.

Devaanshi Mehta was one of four children born into a Hindu, Gujarati family.

Devaanshi Mehta had two older sisters, Jyotika and Tejal, and a younger brother, Dushyant.

Devaanshi Mehta went to the Cannon Lane and Pinner Wood Primary Schools, before attending Nower Hill High School.

At the age of nine, Devaanshi was diagnosed with a rare bone marrow condition aplastic anaemia.

Devaanshi Mehta underwent a bone marrow transplant in April 2007 and a top up of bone marrow in February 2008 at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.

Devaanshi Mehta learnt that it was extremely difficult for people to find these products at the right time, because there were a lack of donors within the Asian community as a whole.

In 2010, Devaanshi Mehta's lungs collapsed and she had comprehensive lung surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital for children in Bloomsbury, London.

Devaanshi Mehta gave a number of interviews on television, radio and in print to raise awareness.

Devaanshi Mehta wrote a blog titled "My Story in My own Words", where she spoke candidly about her treatment and prognosis.

Devaanshi Mehta died on 28 June 2012 at the Great Ormond Street Hospital after a lengthy battle with her lung condition and chronic platelet transfusion dependency.

Devaanshi Mehta won the Jack Petchey Award for her fundraising and awareness campaigns in 2010, and was nominated for the Justgiving Young Fundraiser of the Year in 2011.