On the third anniversary of her death, the Kaushik family decided to pay tribute to their “smiling star” Vanhi by launching the campaign with Red Cross.

Vanhi was just three-months-old when she was diagnosed with leukemia, but the then two-year-old tragically lost her battle in 2015.

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Father Vishal Kaushik began the campaign with a blood donation on Monday – just one day after the day his middle child died three years ago.

He said the family wanted to achieve a target of 116 units of blood donated to honour the 116 weeks of her precious life. 

“Statistics shows that one in every three people will require blood at some time in their life but only one in 30 donate blood,” Mr Kaushik said.

“We are doing it in memory of our daughter who passed away on July 8 in 2015. She had leukemia so we saw firsthand how important every blood donation is because she was constantly requiring it.

“We know about those agonising minutes and hours waiting for blood, and she was so lethargic – we couldn’t do anything but wait. 

“So that was the motivation for us to do something in her memory.” 

The campaign, fittingly entitled ‘Vanhi – The Smiling Star’ is aiming to raise awareness and encourage people to donate blood.  

“It was a very difficult for us and still is. We miss her every day,” Mr Kaushik said. 

​People interested in becoming involved in the campaign should visit donateblood.com.au/red25.