The Accra Golden Lions Club, in partnership with the National Blood Service Ghana (NBSG), has organised a blood donation exercise dubbed: “Donate a Pint of Blood to Save a Life” at the Labone Senior High School.
Mr Frank Kofi Ayivor, President of the Accra Golden Lions Club, said the blood donation had become a yearly activity embarked on every February. “Blood is life, and in the month of February when everyone is showing love, there is no better way than to donate blood to save a life.
“There have been lots of accidents and surgery among others that blood is required to salvage the situation,” he said in Accra on Thursday. He said each year the club mobilises about 250 students from the school to donate blood as a way of serving the country.
Mr Stephen Danso, the Senior Donor Recruitment Officer of the NBSG, said the mandate of the NBSG is to ensure the provision of safe and efficacious blood and blood products.He said making blood available to all patients who needed blood transfusion was very important to the recovery process however there had been challenges as the demand for blood was sometimes higher than what was available.
He said: “Blood cannot be artificially manufactured hence there is a need for people to donate blood on regular basis.” “After the donation the blood will be screen and processed. The blood is screened for Hepatitis B, Syphilis, and HIV and grouped into the various blood groups, which can be stored for 35 days.”
“After the screening, the blood donated is processed into platelets, fresh frozen plasma, and then distributed to the various hospitals”. He said the initiative by the Accra Golden Lions Club had been supportive of their mission and that the NBSG last year collected 200 units of blood during the exercise.
He commended the Accra Golden Lions Club and Labone Senior High School for encouraging the students to participate in the blood donation exercise adding that one can donate blood after every four months.
Mr Danso encouraged Ghanaians to participate in blood donations which he described as a civic responsibility. “Besides it being a civic responsibility, blood donation also rejuvenates your body cells. The old cells are taken out and fresh cells are built up. “If people do not donate blood it will result in needless deaths. And there have been needless deaths because there was no blood available,” he said.
The Lion’s Club International is a worldwide charity organisation bringing together people committing themselves to volunteer services to their community. They bring together their talents, resources, time, and services to help bring positive change to the underprivileged in the society.