The Dubai Blood Donation Centre (DBDC) has collected more than 11,000 units of blood in the last three months, following Dubai Health Authority's (DHA) launch of the ‘BE THE 1’ blood donation campaign in partnership with Real Madrid football star Cristiano Ronaldo.

Dr Mai Raouf, director of the DBDC thanked community members for their support as blood collected at the centre is solely through voluntary blood donations. “Since the launch of the campaign, we collected 11,653 units of blood. Of the units of blood collected, 4,622 were collected at the centre, 4,421 were collected during campaigns and 2,610 were collected through mobile blood donation buses.

“We are meeting the demand for the emirate and this is due to the support of our community members. My message to the community is that those who have rare or negative blood groups should register with the DBDC so that we can call them if the need arises. I would also like to inform the public that it is safe to donate blood every eight weeks, and platelets up to 24 times a year. Blood donation takes only 15 minutes and in return it provides patients with a life-line.

“Donating blood helps save millions of lives each year. Blood and blood products are essential not only for emergency medical situations but also for long-term treatments. The aim of the campaign is to encourage the youth to regularly donate blood and help save lives.”

As part of this campaign, DHA’s blood donation buses have been holding mobile blood donation camps across different locations in the emirate of Dubai, to encourage the community to donate blood and to raise awareness about importance of this humanitarian initiative that directly helps save lives.

The DBDC is the first centre in the UAE and one of the few centres in the Middle East to achieve the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) accreditation. - TradeArabia News Service