Ghana: Melcom Group, NBS Organise Nationwide Blood Donation Exercise

One of Ghana’s premiere retail chains, The Melcom Group in part­nership with the National Blood Service (NBS) have organised a nationwide blood donation exer­cise to help restock the national blood bank.

The one-day exercise, support­ed by the Graphic Clinic, was held on November at Melcom shops across the country, with donors including staff, customers and members of the public.

A total of 2,184 pints of blood were donated at the end of the exercise, according to data provided in statement issued bythe Melcom Group Director of Communications, Mr Godwin Avenorgbo.

Speaking at the Spintex branch of Melcom before the exercise commenced, Mr Avenorgbo, said the donation drive was to give the public a chance to support healthcare delivery.

“On this occasion we have re­ceived the support of the National Blood Service and the Graphic Clinic to bleed as many pints of blood as possible for storage in all well-equipped hospitals in Ghana.

“Our appeal therefore is a simple one; donate a pint of blood to save a life at any of the Melcom shops nationwide,” he added.

Aside from the blood dona­tion,Mr Avenorgbo said Melcom Care Foundation, the philanthropic Arm of the Group was supporting the Graphic clinic this month to undertake a health screening.

He said the date for the exercise to be manned by qualified medical doctors and health service staff would be announced by their partner, Graphic Communications Group.

He urged Ghanaians to come out in their numbers to donate urgently needed blood for trans­fusion.

A member of the 37 Military Blood Group, Captain Derrick Kofi Opoku, said there was the need to donate blood to save a life because blood could not be man­ufactured artificially and the only way of getting blood is donation.

He added that one unit of blood donated, was about 415 mil­liliters; less than a sachet of water, and that having more blood in the national bank could go a long way to save a life.

Captain Opoku urged the general public to voluntarily donate blood to save others when the need arose.

He stated that, blood donation ­helped the donor lower cholesterol level and enabled the body to reproduce new blood.

A blood donor, Albert Amankwah said he donated blood to help those who needed it and congratulated Melcom for organ­ising such an exercise and hoped to see more of these exercises in the near future.