Rope-in college students as blood donors, says SP

Commending the services of ‘friends2support.org,’ India’s largest voluntary blood donors’ database portal, Superintendent of Police N.M.Mylvahanan has called upon the promoters to popularise the portal among college students and government servants, and register them as donors.

Addressing a State awareness programme here on Sunday, the SP said the concept behind launching the portal was very good as it provided direct access of donors to the needy, but it was a matter of regret that only 5,000 people have registered to volunteer for blood donation in the State.

He suggested that the promoters launch a special campaign to enrol college students, who used smart phones and make them donors.

They could also cover government servants as the portal would be extremely useful to get donors of rare blood groups, he said and offered to provide 100 donors from the police department.

The SP said he would send a list of 100 interested people from Home Guards, Youth brigades and police for registering them as regular blood donors.

Stating that an average of about 25 people lost their lives every month in road accidents in Ramanathapuram district, the SP said a good number of the victims could be saved if they were taken to the nearest hospital and administered blood during the golden hour.

Speaking on the occasion, S.Ashokan of the A P Hithendran Memorial Trust, said organ donation was equally important as blood donation.

A brain dead person would be alive for three days and that person’s organs could be donated within the period to save the lives of other people, he said.

The SP honoured S.K.Shareef, founder of the friends2support.org and Jayanth Justine, Head of Technical team for winning the World Youth Summit award in December last in Colombo for their outstanding services. He also honoured V P Ilayapari (52) of Madurai, who had donated blood for more than 150 times and Tamizhselvan (58) also from Madurai for donating blood for 100 times.

A. V. Satheesh Kumar, Tamil Nadu Coordinator, said efforts were being taken to register more donors, especially those having rare blood groups.