Chennai: A motorist's journey to highlight importance of organ donation

Chennai: Most single bike journeys are set out to experience the ambience and life in exotic locations and to meet people from different localities you have never been to. But it does make a difference when one carry along a message as like that of U.Jayavelan managed to do – a selfie with a placard with an appeal to ‘Be an organ donor’. This has gone viral in the social media.

The motorist began his journey from Chennai on February 1 and has traveled a distance of 10,300 kilometers covering states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and returned to Chennai on March 4. He tarvelled all that way to popularise the organ donation message among public.

“In medical colleges, students and authorities are finding a tough time as there is lack of dead bodies for practical exams due to which the government is experiencing difficulty to open up new colleges. Only if more people come forward to donate organs and give away mortal remains will this situation change. So I decided to spread awareness on the need to pledge donation of their organs or mortal remains among the masses, that is how the journey began,” said the 32-year-old Jayavelan to Deccan Chronicle at his residence in Navallur.

He set off on his journey on February 1 from Chennai near the Padi bridge and reached Vijayawada the second day. He cruised through Orissa where he clicked selfies at Puri Jagannath temple, sand sculptures and the Sun Konark temple and reached Kolkata on February 7.

“I would say the best of the locations were the Ajantha and Ellora caves and the Shirdi temple mainly because of the way they have been restored by the archeological department,” he added.

Jayavelan has posted all the pictures from the various locations in Facebook and has already received more than 5,000 likes and over 100 ‘shares’.