Madhya Pradesh: A person’s character can be judged by the way they treat other people. In this case, a young girl of 18, Ankita Srivastav showed utmost strength when she donated 74 per cent of her liver to her sick mother. Her mother was diagnosed with this disease when Ankita was only 13 years old.

A wait for 7 years for the transplant

At the young of 13, Ankita decided she would become her mother’s donor. She was happy to know that her blood matched that of her mother’s but she was quite young and not of age to be a donor. For seven years, she had to watch her mother suffer, while she made sure to stay healthy in order to donate her liver. She educated herself on organ donation and the disease her mother was suffering from.

When she was of age and healthy enough to donate her liver, her mother’s condition worsened and she went into a coma. After some wait, the day finally arrived. Ankita said, “I can’t forget the day of 26 February 2014, I was very excited and full of enthusiasm to go into the operation theatre to donate 74% of my liver to my mother. During and after the operation, I was on anaesthetics and took some time to regain consciousness. I was weak and, on a wheel-chair. I had to learn how to walk and sit all over again.”

Mother passed away

The operation was successfully executed but after four months, complications arose and Ankita’s mother passed away due to multi-organ failure. She said that she never thought what the world would look like without her mother. So many years of pain and she was still full of grief. Soon, her father remarried and left Ankita and her sister estranged. Both the girls started living with their grandmother. As the older sister, Ankita realized her responsibilities and started earning money.

She was still weak in her limbs but did not give up. Because of the reduced size of her liver, she still takes a lot of precautions.

The beginning of sports training

It took her almost two years to fully recover. Soon, she started taking swimming and running lessons. She had been athletic as a child and wanted to return to sports again. During her recovery, she found out about the Transplant Games and started with her practice. She gave her trials and was selected to participate in the World Transplant Games in 2019 which was held in Britain.

Her years of resilience and hard work paid off and she won gold medals in throw ball and long jump and made a world record. On 21 April 2023, Ankita won gold in long jump and silver in shotput at the World Transplant Games. The even was held in Perth, Australia and this achievement made her the first Indian to have won a gold in this game. 

An athlete and an entrepreneur

Along with her sports endeavours, she wanted to share her story with the world. Over the years, Ankita has built eight brands and has her own advertising firm. She was featured on a television show on Discovery Kids. She keeps herself busy to not remind herself of her painful past. She has become a source of inspiration for everyone around the world.