The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) joins the rest of the world to commemorate World Blood Donor Day themed Safe Blood Saves Lives, with Dr Adedoyin Dosumu, a Consultant Haematologist in LASUTH charging stakeholders to create sustained awareness on the importance of blood donation.
Keeping with the mandate of the World Health Organization (WHO) to all countries to “celebrate and thank individuals who donate blood and encourage more people to start donating; to raise wider awareness of the urgent need to increase the availability of safe blood; to demonstrate the need for universal access to safe blood transfusion; and to mobilize support at National, Regional and Global levels among Governments and development partners to invest in, strengthen and sustain national blood programme”, the Haematology Department of LASUTH in conjunction with the Lagos State Ministry of Health is having a blood donation programme at the blood donation centre in LASUTH, on the 14th and 15th June 2020.
Emphasizing on the activities for the day, Dr. Adedoyin Dosumu said, “it is our own effort to join the world to celebrate the World Blood Donor Day.”
He further opined that this is an avenue to charge stakeholders with regards to creating a sustained awareness on the importance of blood donation.
“Importantly, it is a reminder to honour those heroes who regularly donate blood to save the lives of people who are in need of it,” he added.
He went on to explain that “we professionals have the responsibility to continually remind the populace of the need to donate blood voluntarily, at least three times in a year to help others.”
In celebrating the donors, Dr. Dosumu said medals will be awarded based on the pints of blood donors have given so far. He used the opportunity to charge donors to preserve their bodies for future donations while also reminding them that they are training their bodies to get used to loss of blood and helping their bone marrow to produce more as long as they are eating well.
Other activities that would grace the blood donation day celebrations in LASUTH include, mini health checks and presentation of gift cards to the awardees.
Adedapo Adesanya 
Aduragbemi Omiyale