Donating blood saves lives

Greetings to all mi nice, clean good-up good-up readers, especially those who donated at my blood drive last Friday, July 5, at Nelson Mandela Park in St Andrew. I appreciate all of you from my heart, and I thank each of you for giving such a precious commodity for such a worthy cause.

To everyone who donated, I don't have enough words to say thank you, but because of you, many lives will be saved. We collected 200 units of blood, and I'm grateful. In 2017, we collected 122 units, in 2018, we got 147 units, and last Friday, we collected 200 units! All thanks to my donors!

There is a lot of misinformation that has been disseminated over the years regarding giving blood, and people hold on to the lies and misconceptions for dear life. They don't realise that blood donation may save their life or the life of a loved one. Nobody no plan fi sick or meet inna accident. Nobody no plan fi go inna surgery go develop complications, but the reality of life is that these things happen.

So if we fail to prepare, we prepare to fail. We need to be proactive instead of reactive. It is time we get to a stage where we have surplus at the blood bank and not the limited supply we have now. One unit of blood can save up to three lives. By donating blood, we are superheroes giving people a chance to live. Many times the person who needs blood is the breadwinner of a family or a mother who has young children who depend on and need her. The artificial and manufactured fear that some people have needs to go! Sickness or accident nuh have no respect for your bank book, your address or the stratum of society to which you belong. Any one of us can need blood at anytime!

BE THE CHANGE

Yuh have a set a people who can tell yuh everything weh wrong wid Jamaica, yet if you ask them what they have done to make the country better, they cannot tell you. It is imperative that we be the change we want to see in our country. There are persons who are unable to donate blood because of religious or health reasons, but there are those persons who just refuse to give.

A lady come an seh she not giving because she fraid. I asked her if she has children, and she said yes. I asked her how many, and she said five. I went on to tell her that the labour pain and the agony from the one-eye serpent weh give her the five children hotter than donating blood, which takes like 10 minutes! Should persons who do not donate blood get blood when their lives hang in the balance?

What if it were a situation where anybody who, without a just or medical cause, refuses to give blood could not get any blood if they should need it? Unnu see the trouble weh deh deh?! We should be our brothers' and sisters' keepers, and donating blood is one way of doing so. Nuff a who a spread the scare tactics and lies about giving blood, they have never given blood! So when dem a chat, tell dem fi gweh!

Blood donation is not a government or private, sector thing; it is an everybody thing! We all have to play our part in advancing the welfare of the whole human race. I'd like to thank all the participants, sponsors, donors, nurses, doctors, security staff - everyone who made Miss Kitty's blood drive a success for 2019. I'm looking forward to an even bigger and more extraordinary turnout next year. We need Jamaica, and Jamaica needs us. Have a blessed week, and if you can, please go to the blood bank and donate blood, and tell dem a Miss Kitty send yuh! Blood saves lives!

Get knowledgeable about giving blood, and let us make giving blood part of our civic responsibility. Love unnu!