Wanted: More blood donors

From page 1 There are individuals who have come together so they have inspiration and motivation to donate. “Five Minutes of your Time + 350 ml of your Blood = One life saved,” is how Giovanni Pimentel Singum, a blood donor, describes the initiative of donating blood. Kiran Bhaskaran, a regular donor, has not been able to donate blood of late because of a rule that says if one travels to certain countries, there must be a gap of at least 12 months before they can start donating.

“I used to donate blood regularly before. I believe donating blood is good for the hair, skin, nails and in producing new blood.”

One of the benefits of blood donation is that it causes the body to produce new blood cells which leads to good health.

The other benefits, according to organicfacts.net, is prevention of heart and liver ailments caused by iron overload, aiding weight loss and helping prevent cancer.

For many, donating blood is an experience related to college life and often forgotten later.

Another important factor is one should meet the standard eligibility criteria. Blood is also required in cases of elective or planned surgeries in which there is much loss of blood or lesion/rupture of an organ like that of pregnant women’s uterus, where huge amount of blood is lost and urgent replacement is needed, said Dr Singvi.

“Blood transfusions are required in cases of severe anaemia (nutritional or due to a problem arising in the production of haemoglobin) when the HB count is low.

“In other situations, we need to give some components of blood such as platelets when there is a deficiency of this particular factor,” he said.

The most important thing is blood cannot be manufactured.

It has to come from human beings and hence the need to donate blood.

“It is a life-saving medicine. Donating blood is an act of humanity as we are saving each other’s lives,” said Dr Singvi.