Tema, July 16, GNA - Mr John Ahadjie, Principal Blood Donor of the Tema General Hospital Blood Bank, has appealed to the general public, especially churches to voluntarily donate blood to support the hospital.

The hospital, which needs about 20 to 30 units for its patients and 15 to 20 units for other hospitals in the municipality, has less than ten voluntary donors a week.

He made the appeal when he spoke to the Ghana News Agency after a blood donation sensitisation programme for the Tema District National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) to prepare personnel for donation, during the National Service week in August.

He said most of the donation the hospital received, was from second cycle institutions in the municipality, indicating that, the up coming vacation period would affect donation to the hospital. Some benefits of donating blood, he said was that it made donors to know their blood group, acquire a donor certificate, which qualified them for a transfusion any time the need arose, detection of any infections and above all saving a life.

Explaining the blood group, Mr Ahadjie advised that, to avoid transfusion problems in offspring, couples in the negative group; (A-, B-, AB- and O-) should not marry from the same group adding that, "those are rare groups; they normally stand the risk of dying, when the need for transfusion arises".

He said to avoid dizziness after donating blood, donors should make sure they answer all questions correctly before donating, adding that, most people lie to the nurses leading to either collapsing or feeling dizzy after the donation.