How Bhopal Pratap Lions Club Made Dialysis Accessible
For a low-income family, a diagnosis of end-stage renal disease is as much a financial crisis as a medical one. Regular dialysis, required two to three times a week, can cost anywhere between ₹1,500 and ₹3,000 per session, or more. For patients already stretched thin, the cost is unsustainable. Many simply stop treatment.
That reality was not lost on the members of Bhopal Pratap Lions Club, District 3233-G1. During what began as a routine club meeting, someone put a proposal on the table: what if they could establish a dialysis facility that made treatment genuinely accessible — free or heavily subsidized — for patients who could not afford it?
The idea found an immediate champion in Past District Governor M.K. Jain MJF of District 3233-G2, who recognized the scale of the need and pushed the project forward with urgency. Ashish Jain was appointed Project Director, working alongside a core team that included senior members Pradeep Saxena, J.K. Vijay, Rishi Gupta, and Club President Vikas Marwah. The team set about the deliberate, unglamorous work of turning intent into infrastructure.
Finding the right hospital mattered. The team evaluated several facilities before settling on Mahavir Institute of Medical Sciences — not for its size, but for its character. The institution’s leadership shared the project’s purpose without reservation, which made the partnership feel less like a transaction and more like a mutual commitment.
The financial structure of the project reflected the same spirit. Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) extended a grant of approximately ₹41 lakh, while Mahavir Institute contributed 25% of the project cost – an institutional gesture that carried real weight. With the guidance of then District Governor Manish Shah PMJF, the project cleared all LCIF approvals and moved toward installation.
On September 5, 2025, five dialysis machines were inaugurated at the facility by Multiple Council Chairperson Manish Shah, in the presence of PDG M.K. Jain, Dr. J.P.S. Johar, and senior Lions members from across the district. The dialysis unit — equipped with a dedicated free treatment room and full medical supervision — was ready.
Since inauguration, nearly 200 patients have received treatment at the centre. Each session, for each patient, represents a week that continues, a household that holds together, a person who does not have to choose between treatment and their family’s needs.
Projects like this one take root in a meeting room and grow through years of planning, negotiation, and follow-through. Bhopal Pratap Lions Club has shown what that process looks like in practice. More importantly, it has shown what becomes possible when quality healthcare is made accessible to those who need it most.