Donate blood, women urged

Star: KUCHING: The Malaysian Red Crescent Society wants more women to come forward to donate blood.
Kuching chapter blood donors’ recruitment chairman Ayub Abdul Rahman said statistics showed there were just 1,189 women among the 11,801 donors here last year.
The number of women donors peaked at 1,404 in 2002, he told reporters at the chapter’s annual blood donors’ awards presentation at the City South Council building here yesterday.
Urging the womenfolk to volunteer as blood donors, Ayub said: “You are no longer the weaker sex. The equality of men and women in today’s society should encourage more of you to come forward as donors.”
Chapter vice-chairman Dr Chou Chii Ming said the MRCS Kuching has a pool of about 45,000 registered donors and for the past five years had won the national award as the top blood collection centre.
Chapter patron Datuk Amar Laila Taib, wife of Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud, offered a challenge trophy several years ago to organisations which recruited the most number of women donors.
In her speech, Laila, a blood donor herself, said she was worried about the drop in the blood collection over the past two years.
She said MRCS Kuching collected 12,990 pints, which was a 1.33% decline from 13,163 pints in 2004.
If the trend was not reversed, it could cause problems, as there was increasing demand, said Laila. The text of her speech was read out by Kuching chapter adviser Datuk Abang Abdul Karim Tun Openg.
On a more positive note, she said the number of first-time donors had jumped to 3,519 last year from 2,552 in 2004.
Bidayuh Marcus Raney Dios, 54, who has given 147 pints of blood, led some 500 recipients of the chapter's annual awards who have each given at least 25 pints to the blood bank.
Raney, who gave his first pint in 1972, said he would continue to donate blood until he is 60.