The Chairman, De Norsemen Kclub International (DNKI), Abuja Chapter, Mr Kolawole Otepola has encouraged Nigerians to donate blood to save lives.
He gave the advice in Abuja during a visit by the organization to Wuse District Hospital where members freely donated blood to the hospital as part of the activities to mark this year’s World Blood Donor Day.
Mr Otepola said the act of conducting humanitarian service to people who are truly in need is the mandate of the DNKI and a continuous process.
“Blood is God-given, if you can reach out to others who don’t have, and cannot pay and donate freely from what we have been freely given, that is what the holy book teaches us to do, and that’s why we are here”.
“Blood donation is what we do on a yearly basis, for this year we chose Wuse Hospital because we looked round, we have been to Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Jabi, Abuja six times, we have been to Maitama, Gwarinpa.
“So we decided to go somewhere new this time, so we decided to go to where our impacts will be further felt, where we have not gone before.”
He further advised Nigerians to make use of this opportunity to turn out and donate blood to save lives and help humanity.
In his reaction, the Medical Director of Wuse District Hospital, FCT Abuja, Dr Oluseyi Asaolu, said blood is life and the act of donating it reduces the rate of death.
“Blood is very crucial to human life, everybody needs blood, when you make that intervention to donate blood, it becomes a saving moment for someone in need.
“It’s a beautiful initiative when the world do a blood donation day. And we are happy that this has been sustained even up till now.”
“There is a need to donate blood. I used to donate blood until like a year or two, for men, there is nothing you are doing with the blood just storing it there, and the good thing is that if you donate blood, the body has a way of replenishing it. So it’s a win-win for everybody.
“We really want to appreciate DNKI considered Wuse District Hospital, for bringing people to donate and support what we are doing here.”
Dr Asaolu noted that Wuse District Hospital has one of the best blood donation and blood transfusion services “and we try to maintain that, and our blood is properly screened before being given out to the patient.
One of the members of the DNKI, Mr Ogbobe Mathew, said rendering humanitarian services to people in need is our culture and what we do every year.
“When the organisation came up with the blood donation thing we agitated and discussed it knowing that giving our blood will save lives.
“You never can tell whose life the blood is going to be safe. We tend to render humanitarian service like helping people in need in order to make the society a better place.”