Its time to roll up your sleeves and save a life – World Blood Donor Day 2020

Your little effort can give others second chance to live life.

Donating blood is one of the greatest ways to help humankind. By doing so, we save someone’s precious life, and that is a blessing in itself. 

On 14th June every year the world celebrates World blood donor day also known as WBDD  to raise awareness about safe blood donations and to thank those who voluntarily donate blood to save the lives of others.

This day is celebrated to mark the birthday anniversary of scientist Karl Landsteiner who won the  Nobel Prize for his discovery of the ABO blood group system. Before Carl detected blood groups, blood transfusions used to happen without knowing the various blood groups

2020 WBDD Theme

World blood donor day is marked as a global public health campaign by WHO. Every year there is a theme made for the day and this year’s World Blood Donor Day theme is ‘‘Safe blood saves lives’‘ with the tagline ”Give blood and make the world a healthier place”.

In the wake of coronavirus pandemic, the WHO will conduct a global virtual campaign this year with the objective to focus on the contribution an individual giver can make to improve health for others in the community.

Is it safe to donate while you are MENSTRUATING ?

It’s understandable where the idea comes from: your body is losing blood during menstruation already and you worry for your own health if you volunteer to give even more. But regular menstruation does not affect your ability to donate. You can safely donate blood during your period if it is required and your period will not be affected by the donation.

What to know before you donate blood:

  • The donor must be fit and healthy, and should not be suffering from transmittable diseases.
  • Age and weight- The donor must be 18–65 years old and should weigh a minimum of 50 kg.
  • Pulse rate- Between 50 and 100 without irregularities.
  • Hemoglobin level- A minimum of 12.5 g/dL.
  • Blood pressure- Diastolic: 50–100 mm Hg, Systolic: 100–180 mm Hg.
  • Body temperature- Should be normal, with an oral temperature not exceeding 37.5 °C.
  • The time period between successive blood donations should be more than 3 months

DONATE BLOOD AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE !

Donating blood is one of the most common ways people choose to give back to their societies . Despite the high demand and the general recognition of its importance, only about a fourth of the people who are able to donate blood do. Many people are not aware of just how important blood donations can be.  Approximately one of every seven people admitted to the hospital need blood. There are a lot of health benefits of donating blood :

  1. Giving blood can reveal potential health problems
  2. Giving blood can reduce harmful iron stores
  3. Giving blood can help your liver stay healthy
  4. Giving blood can help your mental state

The health benefits of donating blood are considerable—but of course, the most important part of the process is helping to save lives.

It’s time to roll your sleeves and save a life.Just 1 unit of your blood can save 3 lives. So why not take this day as an opportunity and make a difference in the society by acting responsibly.

“Blood Donation- Helping Hand to Humanity”.

Helping others irrespective of their background, caste, religion has been a part of our culture and traditions not only in India but around the world. Helping the one in need has been considered to be the reflection of humanity over everything. Man has achieved development with helping each other and by working hand in hand, establishing a feeling of brotherhood, togetherness and unity to fight out tough circumstances and win over tougher times. Help could be varied as per the conditions and differentiation. It could be monetary help, by helping the one in need of money, or by giving food, or any physical help and so on. People believe that one gets blessed with better opportunities and less struggles as he thinks of others and helps them by even going outta the way. 

Blood donation is one such help which not only helps others in need, but also has many health benefits to the one giving it. It not only reduces the risk of cancer and blood clotting but reduces the risk of severe damage to other body organs like liver , pancreas and many others. But irrespective of this fact, the question which surely arises is “Why should any human donate his blood, what are its advantages, disadvantages”, and many other thoughts do come to the mind of individuals. 

14th June is the day when World Blood Donor Day is celebrated across the globe with the main Idea to spread the “Awareness of blood donation, how it can help to save the life of any person in need , and how we still can save humanity by showing this small gesture of giving”. But why should any individual give such a precious thing which he is born with you any stranger. In today’s world, risk to life’shas increased as number of accidents, suicides attempt and various other things leading to threat have increase. Blood donation helps to provide those injured in such accidents to save their life. Since we know our heart pumps a lot of blood and the amount we give gets recovered soon. So why not we just donate to help others. 

There are also benefits to the one giving as:

 1. It helps in better blood production and circulation around the body.

 2. Replenish the older blood cells and produce new one which surely have better health benefits.

 3. Helps maintain liver, heart and other body parts in better working conditions and reduces the risk of any part to fail. And many more advantages of the same. 

But the disadvantages of blood donation may include:

1.Initial weakness in the body . 

2. Pain. 

3. Continue bleeding. And sometimes it can take time to stop. 

4. Conditions of headache and dizziness

But the main thing to keep in mind before donating blood is that one needs to be at least 17 years old with at least a weight of 50kg. The individual must not be consuming drugs, doesn’t have a high blood pressure , must not have tattoos on their body and many others as per the guidelines of the “World Health Organization”. 

So one should try out to donate blood every month or more as per the health conditions of the human, so as to keep him/ her healthy and also people around them safe by providing them what they need in difficult circumstances. 

As helping others, would definitely turn out to help ourselves in future, as per the theory of Karma, “What goes around, comes around”.