Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) on Tuesday celebrated World Blood Donor Day in spirit of accolade to those who contribute with their blood donations to save lives. A webinar was organized under the theme “Donating blood is an act of solidarity, join the efforts & save lives”, to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products, and to pay tribute to voluntary blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood. Secretary General PRCS, regular voluntary blood donors, staff of PRCS Regional Blood Donor Centre (RBDC) and volunteers were among the participants of the webinar that was broadcasted live on the official social media platforms of PRCS. Regular voluntary blood donors from different occupations including Romulus Miranda, Fareed Rab Nawaz, Kashif Suleman and Head of Delegation Turkish Red Crescent Carlos Camilo attended the webinar and shared their experiences of blood donation and their motivation that compelled them to donate blood. In his message on this occasion, PRCS Chairman Abrar ul Haq said that World Blood Donor Day has provided us an opportunity to urge governments and national health authorities to provide adequate resources and put into place systems and infrastructures to increase the collection of blood from voluntary, non-remunerated blood donors.
He said PRCS has developed short-, medium- and long-term strategies to further increase its blood collection capacity and outreach to meet the growing demand in the country. He said it is time for urgent interventions to ensure uninterrupted supply of blood, especially for those whose life depends on regular blood transfusions. Abrar ul Haq said that the annual collection of RBDC is approximately 13,000 units of blood and to date, the RBDC has collected and distributed more than 89,000 units of blood and its components. He said 60-70% of the collected blood is distributed free of cost to most vulnerable patients suffering from thalassemia, cancer, renal failure, gynecological related issues, and road traffic accidents. Abrar ul Haq expressed his gratitude to all voluntary donors for their life-saving gift of blood to those in need. He said that blood donations not only make possible hundreds of thousands of transfusions, operations and other medical procedures but also serve blood storage to be used in accidental and medical emergencies.
