A total of 300 pints of blood were at the weekend donated by two organisations during a blood donation exercise to help restock the National and the 37 Military Hospital blood banks in Accra.
They are Happy 98.9 FM, an Accra-based radio station and Donewell Insurance Company.
The exercise, which formed part of the annual Happy/Donewell Blood Donation exercise on the theme “Donate a pint of blood and save a life” saw many people troop to the Ayalolo Bus Terminal in Accra to donate blood to restock the National and 37 Hospital blood banks.
The National Blood Service estimate that the country annually needs more than 300,000 pints of blood to save the lives of people who need blood, but the country is able to collect 179,000 pints of blood through voluntary blood donation.
Speaking at the event, the Programmes Manager of Happy 98.9 FM, Elwoode Mantey, said the event was a charitable event Happy FM was embarking on as part of its corporate social responsibility to give back to society.
He added that the exercise was also to raise awareness and increase the number of voluntary donations in the country.
“We do this annually to sensitise people on the need to donate blood to save lives and replenish the National Blood Bank and the 37 Military Hospital as often as they can manage.
We are encouraging voluntary donation as against what has become a standard of replacement donation and in emergency situations. Replacement blood may prevent adequate screening before it’s supplied to the patient but with voluntary donation there is more time for the blood to be screened,” Elwoode Mantey stated.
The Acting Head of Marketing and Business Development at Donewell Insurance, Cecilia Bruce, said: “This is the third time we are partnering this life saving event and the objective has always been to save lives and impact the community within which we conduct our business.”
She stressed that “At Donewell, we believe that life is priceless and therefore we invest in notable and worthy events such as this blood donation exercise to bring hope to people and save lives.”
As part of the exercise, the patrons got the opportunity to check their haemoglobin test, blood pressure, eye test among others.
The participants and donors received Kinapharma’s blood tonic and also fully refreshed with products from Cowbell, Healthi Life, Vitamilk and other partners. Free eye care and medical screening were also conducted by IVision Centre and Cedar Medical Plaza respectively for all patrons and donors.
The 2022 edition of the Happy FM/ Donewell Blood Donation exercise was sponsored by 37 Military Hospital, National Blood Service, Kinapharma Limited, Healthi Life ,Cedar Medical Plaza, IVision Centre, Cowbell, Primelife Kidney Foundation and Vitamilk.
BY KINGSLEY ASARE
