LIFE SAVER
Segotso has donated blood 78 times
DRIVEN by passion to save lives and compassion, Bofelo Kgaodi-segotso has donated blood 78 times in 23 years.
The 39-year-old man from Sefhare started giving the gift of life at the age of 16 when he was in Form Three at secondary school. At first, he was doing it for a 440ml can of Fanta Orange and a packet of biscuits and also not to attend afternoon study at school because he was allowed to go and rest after every donation.
Remembering his first day of blood donation, Segotso, who is 0+ blood group type, he found his crush at the school dining hall and that gave him courage to impress the young lady. Today, Segotso has a campaign dubbed ‘Donate Blood, Save Lives, Be a Champion’.
Speaking to The Voice, Segotso said after high school, he joined Pledge 25 Club, which encouraged young people to donate blood at least 25 times in their lives. He said the programme was not too effective until they decided to convert it to a club that can drive the campaign independently and he became the chairperson of the club.
“Five years later, I stepped down to give others a chance to lead the campaign but I never stopped, and introduced the save lives campaign. I am now driven by passion and, every day after donating, I sleep peacefully knowing I have saved lives. I donate blood every 3 months, sometimes I do monthly when I am donating through Apheresis, a machine that allows you to donate blood separately, being plasma and platelets, not wholly blood as is the norm. I just eat healthy and drink lots of water to ensure that I recover,” said Segotso.
Through his campaign, Segotso is hoping to save more lives, inspire more Batswana to donate and help the National Blood Transfusion Services to achieve their annual target of collecting over 40,000 bags of blood. He said people seem not to take blood donation seriously until someone close to them is in need of blood transfusion. He encouraged people to donate blood, especially during the festive season as it is the season in which people lose blood in road accidents.