5K Walk to encourage Voluntary Blood Donation

V.V.S. Lakshman, Pullela Gopichand & Sangita Reddy flag off '5K Walk' to encourage voluntary blood donation on the occasion of World Blood Donors Day

Hyderabad, June 14th, 2014: Legendary Cricketer V.V.S. Lakshman; Pullela Gopichand, Chief Coach, Indian Badminton and Sangita Reddy, Executive Director, Apollo Hospitals Group; flagged off a '5K Walk7 from KBR Park Main Gate, Banjara Hills to Apollo Hospitals, Jubilee Hills on Saturday.

The walk undertaken by over five hundred participants was organised by ISBTI (Indian Society of Blood Transfusion & Immunohaematology - AP Chapter) in association with Apollo Hospitals and friends2support.org. to encourage voluntary blood donation on the occasion of World Blood Donors Day - 14th June. The theme of this year's World Blood donation day is "Safe blood for saving mothers."

Facts about blood needs
• Every year India requires about 5 Crore units of blood, out of which only a meager 80 Lakh
units of blood is available. In Andhra Pradesh as against 50 Lakh Units required, we are in a
position to collect just about 15-20 Lakh units.
• The gift of blood is the gift of life. There is no substitute for human blood.
• Every two seconds someone needs blood.
• More than 38,000 blood donations are needed every day.
• Sickle cell patients can require frequent blood transfusions throughout their lives.
• More than 1 million new people are diagnosed with cancer each year. Many of them will need blood, sometimes daily, during their chemotherapy treatment.
• A single car accident victim can require as many as 100 units of blood
Facts about the blood donation process
• Donating blood is a safe process. A sterile needle is used only once for each donor and then discarded.
• Blood donation is a simple four-step process: registration, medical history and mini-physical, donation and refreshments.
• Every blood donor is given a mini-physical, checking the donor's temperature, blood pressure, pulse and hemoglobin to ensure it is safe for the donor to give blood.
• The actual blood donation typically takes less than 10-12 minutes. The entire process, from the
time you arrive to the time you leave, takes about an hour and 15 min.
• The average adult has about 10 units of blood in his body. Roughly 1 unit is given during a donation.
• A healthy donor may donate red blood cells every 56 days, or double red cells every 112 days.
• A healthy donor may donate platelets as few as 7 days apart, but a maximum of 24 times a year.
• All donated blood is tested for HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis and other infectious diseases before it can be transfused to patients.
Facts about donors
• One donation can help save the lives of up to three people.
• If you began donating blood at age 18 and donated every 90 days until you reached 60, you would have donated 30 gallons of blood, potentially helping save more than 500 lives!