In donating, Amdavadis show it runs in their blood

Kuldeep Tiwari & Devanshi Joshi.Ahmedabad/DNA

Sunday, June 15, 2008

On the occasion of 'World Blood Donor Day' on Saturday, Amdavadis came forward in large numbers to participate in blood donation camps. Prathma Blood Centre set up camps at three malls in the city - Himalaya, Dev Arc, and 10 Acre.The coordinator of the event, Matthew Daniel from Prathma, said: "We also organised one camp at Vatva Industries Association. On an average we collected around 700 units (bottles) of blood by the end of the day.''Prathma Blood Centre collects around 3,500 units of blood in a month. On Saturday, they collected around 45% of a month's target. "Normally, the blood requirement in the city in a month is about 6,000 units but we are not able to meet the requirement as we don't get enough donors. Therefore, places like malls can really prove a successful idea to educate the youth, besides others,'' said Daniel. Students of B J Medical College also organised a blood donation camp, where 45 students donated blood. At the camp, about 60 units of blood were collected."Shortage of blood is a big issue and being a medical student we should put our legs forward. We organised the event and also donated blood. The response has encouraged us to organise such a camp next year too," said Pravin Pandey, an MBBS student.Jyoti Gupta, another young donor, said: "Nothing can be greater than the feeling of contributing for someone's life."