Septuagenarian Meera Kumar had signed a consent form around one-and-a half-years ago donating her body but nobody got back from the organisation where she had pledged her organs.

The Kadamkuan resident, whose husband passed away in 2015, has now approached non-government organisation (NGO) Dadhichi Den Dan Samiti with the same wish.

She has willed her body to be donated to patients requiring organs and also for medical research.

Experts believed since cadaver donations, where organs are harvested from a brain-dead person, are very few in Bihar, more people should come up and donate organs willingly like Meera.

"I have seen my brother in pain when he had a cardiac arrest. I also see so many people suffering because they couldn't find a living donor for a transplant. If my organs can be helpful after my death, I am more than happy to leave them behind for someone. I was thinking of donating my entire body for a long time but I couldn't find an organisation that could help me with this. I contacted medical colleges and hospitals but found their processes technically convoluted. My search ended at Dadhichi Den Dan Samiti," said Meera, 71, who used to work at a private school.

Meera has made her elder brother and a neighbour witnesses in her consent letter for organ donation. A senior doctor with Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences said: "Elderly people are not considered suitable for organ harvesting but some of their organs can be harvested before their death," he said.

Lagan Kumar Gupta, a Kankerbagh-based businessman, set an example on his marriage anniversary this July, as he and his wife Rita Devi signed a consent letter for whole-body donation.

According to Dadhichi Deh Dan Samiti data, in the past one year, 166 people had approached them for organ donation of which 103 were related to whole body donation. That the level of awareness has increased among residents as far as cadaver donation is concerned can be gauged from the data claimed the office secretary of Dadhichi Deh Dan Samiti, Avinash Kumar Gayasen.

Gayasen, however, said even if a person signs a consent letter which has signatures of two witnesses, among them a family member, norms say that after death, his/her family members had the right to take the final call on the donation.

"Signing the consent letter doesn't mean that the person's body would have to be donated by his/her immediate family member post his/her death. But this definitely motivates the family members that organ donation was the last wish of the person which they can fulfil. We are happy that our initiative is bearing fruits. While many residents have come forward for donations, we have to convince more people through camps and other such events to donate," added Avinash.