Yang Mei

yangmei_szdaily@163.com

GOVERNMENT officials paid a visit to a blood donation station in Huaqiangbei, Futian District to express their gratitude to voluntary blood donors by giving them bouquets yesterday, World Blood Donor Day.

Following the visit, a social practice base for voluntary blood donation was unveiled at another blood donation statioin located in the Window to Modernization Building in Huaqiangbei.

According to Zhu Weigang, director of the Shenzhen Blood Center, more than 150,000 people made blood donations and 47.5 tons of blood were collected last year.

He anticipated that the city’s need for blood would only increase in the next few years, adding that blood donation stations should be set up in a rational fashion in order to meet the huge demand.

He called on all levels of government agencies and subdistrict offices across the city to pay attention to the work related to blood donation and to set up blood donation stations in high traffic areas, such as commercial pedestrian streets, so as to guarantee the stability of blood supplies and improve the efficiency of blood collection.

He also encouraged those who had donated their blood to do so on a regular basis in order to ensure the safety and reliability of the blood.

The social practice base for voluntary blood donation, according to Zhu, aims to get more residents, and teenagers in particular, involved in blood donation. He said, “We hope they can learn more about voluntary blood donation. The reason we built the base at a blood donation station is that we wanted people to see that others donate blood in order to remove their misgivings about blood donation and influence more people.”

Wang Ying is a regular blood donor who has made donations dozens of times. In 2000, when she was in college in Hubei Province, she donated blood for the first time. Since then, blood donation has become a part of her life. She is not only a blood donor, but also a beneficiary of blood donation. “One year, my father was ill and he received a blood transfusion free of charge because I am a blood donor,” she said.

Apart from the demand for common blood types, demand for rare blood is also urgent. The Rare Blood Association, a local nonprofit organization founded in 2016, has stepped up and saved many people’s lives over the past year.

Ma Chunyu, a member of the association, said that the association had more than 400 members with rare blood types nationwide, who would offer their blood wherever it is needed. “Last year, a pregnant woman was in labor and needed Rh-AB blood, so one of our members with the same blood type got the news and promptly offered help,” she said.

According to the Shenzhen Blood Center, Shenzhen currently has around 30 blood donation stations and nearly 2,600 registered blood donation volunteers who have offered 1.6 million hours of service.

Since 1993, when the city first put voluntary blood donation into practice, a total of 3.382 million people have made donations and 676.4 tons of blood have been transfused, saving 1.127 million people’s lives.