Throwback to my charitable blood donation for the love of humanity

It's throwback Thursday once again and it's always a delight to relieve the memory of great moments of the past. This week, I will be sharing on my charitable blood donation during my official duty as a healthcare professional during my national service year.

The true essence of life is to serve humanity and be a source of blessing to people especially those that might not be able to repay. Then during my mandatory national service year in my country, i was privileged to be among the few selected healthcare practicioners who participated as an official as a Covid-19 health protocol official. During those times, the Covid-19 pandemic was on and in order to adhere to the safety protocols which includes the testing, detection, social distancing, hand washing, quarantine provision etc, some of us were trained on how to handle such and were part of the officials for the camping exercise.

As we all know, blood is an important part of human make up and no life without blood. During this camping officiation, my country's National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) came to the camp to sollicit for free blood donation from as many who may want to do so. From previous experiences and understanding from the past, i see this as an opportunity to save a life who might be in dire need of blood as a result of injury, trauma, disease condition or an emergency, so i volunteered to freely donate my blood (1 pint of blood) as my own contribution to humanity. All my vital signs like PCV, blood pressure etc were all checked to see if I'm in a good state to do this and it all came out fine.

Then, i was given the necessary forms to fill and the proceedure was carried out by the staffs of this national service. This would be the second time in my life time i will do this and it was a great moment and huge privilege for me to do so. By so doing, someone out there who might need such blood after been screened well and certified for transmission which will be kept in a blood bank might have acess to it and a life is saved. Based on my blood grouping, i'm a universal donor (Blood group O) and from practice over time, i have seen people needing volunteers especially those who can't afford buying the screened and certified ones in the blood bank due to financial constrictions or those with special type of blood groups.

On a final note, i will encourage everyone to know their blood group and genotype and as the opportunity comes and health permits, let's donate blood to save a life especially to the registered and well recognized organization in charge of that nationally for easy access and accountability. Thank you for reading.