In a first, a civic health-care centre gave a new lease of life to two children suffering from genetic disorders, for free. The centre in Borivli, started last year for thalassaemia, haematology and oncology patients, performed two complex and expensive procedures over three months to completely cure the little ones without charging them a penny for it. The procedures, otherwise, cost around Rs 12 lakh each.

A five-year-old boy was cured of thalassaemia, a group of hereditary haemolytic diseases caused by faulty haemoglobin synthesis, and a 12-year-old girl was treated for severe aplastic anaemia, a condition when the body stops producing enough red blood cells. While the boy received stem cells from his older sister, the girl got them from her younger brother.