Hopefully, there will be enough blood

Sunita Jhulka, appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the Sikkim State Blood Transfusion Council on Tuesday, in recognition of her astounding performance as a blood donor - more than 50 times so far.

WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY OBSERVED
GANGTOK, 14 June: World Blood Donor Day on the theme, ‘More blood, More life’ was observed today at the European Commission Building of Sir Thutob Namgyal Memorial Hospital with a special event organized jointly by the Sikkim State AIDS Control Society [SSACS] and Sikkim State Blood Transfusion Council [SSBTC]. A rally was also taken out starting from the Bansilal Petrol Pump to the Blood Bank at the STNM Hospital flagged off by Shakti Singh, Deputy Mayor, Gangtok Municipal Corporation. Also on the day, the SSBTC introduced its Goodwill Ambassador and felicitated nine others for their consistent track record of donating blood. Four organizations were also feted today.

The nine blood donors felicitated are: Bhuwan Sharma [16 times], Bhanu Pradhan [15 times], Naren Pradhan [15 times, he is also the State Coordinator for NSS], Tenzing Sherpa, Anup Bhandari, Ajay Kasheri [13 times], Bimal Rai [10 times], Chreenjivi Nepal [9 times] and Govind Dhakal [8 times], while the four organizations were Nayuma Television, Manuv Uthan Sewa Samiti, Sant Nirankhari Mandal, Gangtok and EPCS Church.
Significantly, Sunita Jhulka of Gangtok was today appointed the Goodwill Ambassador of Sikkim State Blood Transfusion Council in recognition of her phenomenal record of blood donation. Her citation reads, “The Sikkim State Blood Transfusion Council takes great pleasure in felicitating Ms. Sunita Jhulka of Arithang, Gangtok, for selfless act of donating her blood a record 34 times at the Council. Her personal record of donating blood has crossed half a century.”
Dr. CM Sharma [senior blood bank officer/specialist] gave a power-point presentation on the importance of blood transfusion. He said that Sikkim’s annual need of blood was between 2,500-3,000 units and even if one per cent of the population donated blood once a year, there would be no scarcity of blood.
Any person between the age of 18 to 60 years, whose body weight is not less than 45 kg and has not suffered from any major illness in the past one year can donate blood, he said and added that a person can donate blood 168 times in a lifetime [albeit] in three month intervals.
Blood is always needed in emergency and inspite of the remarkable conquest of medical science, there is no factory that manufactures blood, he further stated. And the important thing is that blood can be stored for only 35 days.
In her address, Dr. Uma Pradhan [Director, SSBTC and Medical Superintendent, STNM] gave a brief outline of the functioning of Sikkim State Blood Transfusion Council. She also informed that voluntary blood donation had gone up by 60% in 2010-11 and that there was still need to create awareness on voluntary blood donation in Sikkim.
Speaking as the special guest, Dr. RL Sharma [Principal Director, Health Services] stated that the National AIDS Control Organisation [NACO] had started the 100% voluntary blood donation campaign all over India and Sikkim was following in its footsteps. He also spoke on safe blood. He further informed the gathering about the government approval obtained by the Health Department to open blood storage centres in all the districts. It is very good to see public/private participation in the programme, he further remarked.
Also to address the gathering were Dr. Rinzing Lhamu [Deputy Director, SSACS], who spoke on the theme of World Blood Donor Day and informed that the target is to have a month long campaign starting from 14 June to 14 July for blood donation with 100% voluntary blood donation and no replacement donation, the goodwill Brand Ambassador for SSBTC, Sunita Jhulka, and Shakti Singh, Deputy Mayor, GMC, while four felicitated donors shared their experiences.