Mrs. Olufunso Amosun flagged off the Cancer Awareness Campaign in Ogun State. The programme was designed to enlighten the people of the state on the need to always pay attention to their physical body and report any strange development to medical experts.
Wife of the Former Governor of Ogun State, Mrs. Amosun joined the rest of the world on 14th of June this year to mark the 2012 World Blood Donor Day with the theme: “Every blood donor is a hero” at the State General Hospital, lberekodo in Abeokuta. She used the occasion to urge Nigerian youths to make a commitment to voluntarily donate blood and save lives in order to provide help to the needy in the society.
She described the Day as significant one meant to raise awareness on the need for safe blood, blood products and to appreciate voluntary unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood, adding that youths are at low risk of transmitting infection through their blood.
According to her, “The World Blood Donor Day is a call to service, a day a new generation of blood donors are expected to be raised to provide the safest blood possible for use wherever and whenever it is needed to safe lives. We should note that blood transfusion may arise at any time either in urban or rural areas.
She added that the celebration was also a day to show appreciation to voluntary unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gift by choosing to donate blood without getting paid, saying those individuals had committed a heroic act – a rare gesture of human solidarity with the aim of saving lives.
Mrs. Amosun commended the courage and determination of students in various schools who had come together under the canopy of Club 25 to build a healthy and better society by donating regularly and voluntarily, challenging more people all over the world to donate blood to prevent the unavailability of blood that had led to several deaths and aggravated illnesses.
Also speaking, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu represented by the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Olaokun Soyinka said the infected blood units collected through unsafe practices and from donors with high risk behavior usually results in numerous preventable deaths amongst women and children and people living with HIV/AIDS,that it could be avoided if two percent of adult population committed themselves to regular voluntary non-remunerated blood donation.
He called on Nigerians to be their brother’s keepers and become the service ‘heroes’ by pledging to donate blood today and regularly, appealing to communities to take ownership of voluntary blood donations through the community Blood Donor Mobilization Initiatives.
Dr. Chukwu added that the Federal Government had committed itself to establishing two Blood Component Production Centers in the country by the end of 2013, pointing out that the centers would serve as pilot sites while efforts are on-going to scale up.
