Brand ambassador urges Ghanaians to donate blood

Brand Ambassador of the National Blood Service Ghana, Ms Maame Kwaaba Stephens, has appealed to Ghanaians to donate blood to help save more lives across the country.

“As a country, we have never met our blood requirement, which is just one per cent of the Ghanaian population (320,000) and that is always making the blood bank dry,” she added.

She was speaking at the national blood donation exercise organised by the Kaysens Group, dealers in the distribution of consuming products, hospitality, gas, telecoms and real estate.

Dubbed ‘MarchMarch,’ the exercise which was a partnership by Kwaaba Foundation and the National Blood Service Ghana, was held in Accra last Saturday.

It was an awareness campaign to encourage people to regularly donate blood.

Ms Stephens noted that the need for blood continued to be an issue in the country as its blood bank was most of the time dry, adding that the COVID-19 pandemic had made the situation worse because people hardly donated blood even before the pandemic.

This, she said, was because “people are trying to stay alive than thinking about someone else but that is not the case as you don’t get COVID when you donate blood.”

“People can die from other causes but for them to die due to the shortage of blood, then that will be a shame because that is something we have a solution to and can help,” she added.

Ms Stephens assured donors of safety and that the blood donated would be taken to credible hospitals, including the 37 Blood Bank and the National Blood Service at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

She further appealed to all and sundry to get involved “because once you donate blood, you are supporting so many other causes. Cancer patients, accident victims, pregnant women, babies and other people need blood.”

Mrs Helena Gaisie Stephens, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Kaysens Gaisie Limited, charged other organisations to take up the exercise to help save more lives.

She emphasised the need for people to be educated to discard the fear of developing any health complications after donating blood.

“There is a lot of health benefits for the donor. You will rarely visit the hospital and it keeps your blood fresh. A lot is also revealed about sickness people who donate blood carry,” she added.

Mrs Stephens said it was the fifth year the event had been organised, adding that the Brand Ambassador and Director for Kaysens Group instituted the event on her birthday, hence every March 5 to encourage people to consider donating blood either on their birthday or in birth month to ensure the constant supply of blood at the blood banks.

The CEO of Lele Group and a sponsor of the exercise, Mr Hussein Jaber, who also donated blood, said he was excited about the exercise and urged others to do same.

He said the exercise was a worthy one for which reason the Lele Group sponsored the event.

BY ABIGAIL ARTHUR