The National Blood Service Ghana (NBSG) has crowned this year’s World Blood Donor Month celebration with a health walk with some regular blood donors in Accra, to create awareness of the need for people to donate blood to save lives.

The two -and -half hour walk, which attracted more than 50 people, was to create awareness and sensitise potential donors and the public to see blood donation as a positive act.

Christened “Give Blood, Give Plasma, Share Life, Share Often,” it was aimed at encouraging the public to continuously donate blood and saw the participants walk from the headquarters of the National Blood Service, located within the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, through to some streets at Korle Gonno and back to the starting point.

Aided by a public address system amid singing and dancing, the participants displayed placards with inscriptions such as “Blessed are the young who can donate blood”, “Help put an end to blood shortages”, Smile and give someone a will to smile and live”, It is a joy to give blood”, “Blood has no substitute “, “It is time to roll up your sleeve  to save a life”, and “Tears of a mother cannot save her child, but your blood can”.

During the walk, members of the association also distributed leaflets and pamphlets with information to educate the public on blood donation.

After the walk, staff were taken through aerobics session to gain the benefits of physical exercise

Sensitise

Speaking to journalists after the walk, the acting Director of the Southern Zonal Blood Centre of NBSG, Dr Dilys John-Teye, said the month of June was dedicated to celebrating people who voluntarily donated blood to save others, adding that the health walk was aimed at sensitising the community to the need to donate blood voluntarily.

She commended the staff of NBSG and some regular blood donors for participating in the walk and their willingness to save lives.

“Many people do not understand the call to donate blood.

So the message we are sending out to the communities around is that there are people, patients who need blood regularly, and they can help others by donating blood frequently and we depend on them to obtain the blood units for patients”, she said.

Dr John-Teye expressed the hope that the exercise would help touch people’s heart to donate more and help answer some of the nagging questions on the minds of the public.

The exercise, she explained, was very significant to the NBSG because it took healthy people to donate quality blood to continue saving lives.

Dr John-Teye advised that anyone who was ready to donate blood could walk to any of the zonal NBSG offices to make enquiries about their eligibility to donate blood, adding that those who could not donate blood could be blood donation advocates.

She indicated that although donating blood did not come with monetary benefits, it was rewarding to donate blood to save a life.

Dr John-Teye, therefore, appealed to Ghanaians to volunteer to donate blood to stock blood banks in the various hospitals.

Blood donor

A blood donor, Noeline Kumor, said: “I am a voluntary blood donor and I have donated 45 times and still counting.

Before my first blood donation, I thought I was not fit and it is unhealthy enough but after several attempts, I realised it was not as dangerous as people perceive”.

SOURCE: GraphicOnline