“Thank you from the bottom of our heart because the gift of life you have offered has reached its destination. The blood you have donated has been transfused. We at the Health Ministry’s Blood Bank and our patients thank you,” the Blood Bank said in an announcement on Friday ahead of the World Blood Donor Day on June 14.
The campaign theme for this year’s World Blood Donor Day is “Safe blood saves lives” with the slogan “Give blood and make the world a healthier place,” the World Health Organisation has said.
“The idea is to focus on the contribution an individual giver can make to improve health for others in the community,” the WHO noted.
World Blood Donor Day is celebrated every year around the world on June 14. The event serves to thank voluntary, unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood and also to raise awareness of the need for regular blood donations to ensure that all individuals and communities have access to affordable and timely supplies of safe and quality-assured blood and blood products, as an integral part of universal health coverage and a key component of effective health systems.
“This year’s event will not be celebrated with beautiful events, awards and concerts like we are used to in recent years,” The Health Ministry’s Blood Bank said.
“But this year will be the brightest celebration yet that we will remember forever. This is the year that saw our donation programmes cancelled without notice. The year when we moved overnight all our in-hospital units to external locations. When we had to change our entire planning within a matter of days. When we had to change our work habits within a few hours. When our staff put on their masks, gloves and face shields and carried on working.
“This is the year when we made it together:
-Because you, our blood donors stood tall against the pandemic
-Because you turned “Stay home” into “Stay home…unless we need to donate blood”
-Because you texted 8998 and selected “Option 1” and despite your concerns, you showed up to donate blood
-Because you did not allow for any life to be in danger due to blood shortages and you did not allow the transfusion chain to break
“Events, concerts and awards can wait. This year we all stand up and give our blood donors a big round of applause.”
