Ghanaian actress Yvonne Nelson, in collaboration with the Greater Accra Regional Hospital (Ridge), on Thursday, organised a blood donation exercise to mark World Blood Donor Day.
The actress said she decided to honour the request from the hospital to observe the World Blood Donor Day because she believed that every blood donation exercise meant lives were being saved.
[contextly_sidebar id=”tr0sU0ZK3IvQatb8zdsrc79hw1tZhoPv”]Ms Nelson said she also decided to grace the event, because of the huge number of people who followed her on social media and the level of awareness and publicity her participation would create.
She urged the public to take blood donation exercises seriously since it would go a long way to help during emergencies and also to save lives.
“Anytime hospitals like this call on us to support in blood donations exercises, we have to be ready to assist positively,” and called on her colleagues to also take part in such events.
Dr Emmanuel Adepa-Adapo, a Surgeon and member of the Ridge hospital’s blood bank team, said, the joy of donating blood to save a life, knowing very well that one will not be remunerated for it, should be of benefit and pride to the donors.
He said the hospital’s blood stock was very low, and hopes to get about 200 pints of blood by the close of the exercise.
Dr Adepa-Adapo said statistics also showed that blood-borne diseases are very low in voluntary blood donors, saying that, “those who are regular donors have a very low incidence of contracting blood-related diseases like, HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, and Hepatitis B and C, so the longevity is assured.
Also, the screening of the blood to know whether it is safe to be taken is something that under normal circumstances, would be paid for, but blood donors get to know all that and their blood group free of charge,” he said.
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Source: GNA