SANDAKAN: In conjunction with the 2019 World Blood Donation Day themed “Safe Blood For All”, members of public in Sandakan, irrespective of their religions or racial backgrounds, were urged to regularly donate blood.
State Minister of Health and People’s Wellbeing, Frankie Poon, said it is very important that the people work together to ensure safe and quality blood supply is maintained for the sake of those who need it.
“Blood transfusion units in hospitals often experience critical low supply due to high demand for it to treat patients.
“There is no denying that many within our communities refuse to donate blood despite the various initiatives by the Ministry and the Department of Health. One of the reasons is because of the fear and doubts associated with blood donation.
“Many have the notion that donating blood can have a negative effect on the donors such as weight gain or virus infection.
But all these can be eliminated or minimised by asking questions and getting answers from the experts,” he said.
Frankie said that among the benefits of donating blood is that they can save the lives of others who are in critical condition and help chronic patients who need blood transfusions such as thalassaemia and cancer patients.
His speech was delivered by his liaison secretary, Ku Nyet Fan, at the World Blood Donor Day 2019 at Hospital Duchess of Kent (HDOK) that was organised by Tranfusion Department (HDOK) of the hospital with collaboration of K2 Life Water Sdn Bhd on Sunday.
The event that was held at Dewan Selingan of HDOK was also attended by Director of HDOK, Dr Francis Paul.
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