World Blood Donor Weekend

Okay, hands up, and be honest:  How many of you have given blood? Now how many of you who haven’t might well have done if you’d known more about when and where to go? Probably quite a few; it’s one of those things, like becoming an organ donor, that everyone would do, but hasn’t quite got around to yet.

Thank heavens, then, for those who publicise blood donation. Last weekend World Blood Donor Weekend took  place with a major two-day event in London’s Southall to raise awareness about giving blood. But apart from the general worthiness of the Blood Donation Appeal, the team behind this appeal is tackling a far greater issue: that of which races give blood, or rather, which don’t. Staggeringly, only 0.9% of the UK’s blood-donating population are of Indian Asian origin, which amounts to only 12,486 Asian Indian blood donors on the UK National Blood Donation Register. Painful, hey?

The event’s organisers believe that this is largely to do with misconceptions about giving blood, and they want to change people’s perceptions of donation, seeing the Blood Donation Appeal as an ideal time to tackle this. It is certainly true that none of the major South Asian religions forbid blood or organ donation, so presumably it’s just a case of getting over mental hurdles and spreading awareness.

The event was headed by several high priests of the Sikh faith, and they see it as a great chance to enrol many London Sikhs onto the Blood Donation Register, rather than to go for a mass blood drive on this occasion. One of the key organisers, Reuben Singh, believes it’s good to do something to benefit their British homeland: ‘We are British and this is a cause for our people of all races and religions living here in Britain. This event demonstrates total racial integration as when you are called to give blood you are doing it without the knowledge of whose life you are helping to save. No race, colour, or religion will matter when it comes to giving blood.’

Blood Donation Appeal – the biggest event in the UK to mark World Blood Donor Day – took place on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 June at:

Sri Guru Singh Sabha
Havelock Road
Southall

For further information please see the website for World Blood Day.

Another fundraising event, the Indian Summer Garden Party, which is in aid of international children’s charity Pratham, is taking place on Sunday 28 June at the Chelsea Conservatory: www.pratham.org.uk