As summer season approaches, the concern of parents having thalassemia patients mounts.
“Volunteers do not turn up to donate blood during summer and the Red Cross Blood bank finds it extremely difficult to meet the demands of some 400 thalassemia patients currently undergoing treatment here,” says Ratan Sinha, a voluntary blood donor of repute in the city. Thalassemia patients need blood in every 45 days to survive.
In order to meet the emergency, 47-year-old Sinha has embarked upon an innovative way to encourage voluntary blood donations during summer.
Striking an emotional chord, he is now encouraging the people to organise blood donation camps at wedding receptions, birth and death anniversaries feasts.
“Instead of presenting gifts or cash during all such occasions, if the guests are encouraged to donate blood, the sanctity of the occasion would be doubled,” says Sinha.
On Monday, Sinha organised a blood donation camp here on behalf of voluntary body SN Mohanty Helpline.
The blood donated by 21 persons was handed over to the Red Cross Blood Bank to be exclusively used for thalesemia patients.
Sinha too donated blood for the 99th time. “I have been donating blood since 1986 almost every three months without fail,” Sinha said.
His recent efforts were widely commended when he arranged mobile blood donation camps in Cuttack by converting his SUV into a makeshift ambulance and collected blood.