A family’s experience
Nilesh Vinodchandra Mandlewala’s journey began not with an award or an NGO but with illness in his own family. According to the 2026 Padma citation, his father suffered kidney failure and from 2004 needed dialysis twice a week. That experience brought him face to face with the real suffering behind organ failure and the shortage of donated organs.
Surat, 2006
Around 2005 he began working on awareness of cadaveric organ donation, that is, donation after brain death. He is credited with a role in Gujarat’s first inter-city cadaver kidney donation, from Surat, in January 2006. Over the years the movement grew to include the liver, heart, lungs, pancreas, corneas, hands and other tissues, and in 2014 the Donate Life trust was formally set up.
More than speeches
His work goes well beyond awareness talks. According to Donate Life, his team helps with sensitive counselling of families of brain-dead donors, medico-legal coordination, police clearances, transport and support for donor families after donation.
He turned his father’s pain into a mission to give other families a chance at a transplant. In organ donation, public trust and consent matter as much as medical technology.
Sources
- PIB / Padma Awards 2026: official citation
- Donate Life: founder profile
- Sansad TV: interview
- static.pib.gov.in/WriteReadData/specificdocs/documents/2026/may/doc2026525876101.pdf
- donatelife.org.in/founder/
- sansadtv.nic.in/episode/samvaad-%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A4-%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%87-%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AE-26-may-2026