Rich or poor, you have the most precious natural resource of all: blood.
Liza Mary D'Cruz
This is just a quick note, but it comes from my heart to yours as I
head out the door for my flight to Mumbai.
Last month I had been to Goa. I had a hectic schedule there since I
was visiting Goa after fine 8 months. On Friday night, around 2 AM I
got a call from one of my friends Pinto stating that Mr. Richard
D'Mello, my best friend, who was working as a manager to one of the
famous restaurants at Dona Paula met with an accident and in URGENT
need of O- blood since he lost a lot of blood. After the accident,
D'Mello was stranded for around 1 1/2 hours on the road. One good
hearted cab man saw him on a pool of blood lying on the road and he
took him to the Goa Medical College. He was seriously injured and
also lost a lot of blood during those 1 1/2 hours on road. He was in
urgent need of O- blood. They advised Mr. Pinto to arrange at least 5
- 10 people for good quality blood supply, to save his life. Our
mutual friend, Mr. Pinto, who was with another patient in the medical
college, informed me about this urgent requirement. I tried for
several blood volunteers and none of them was available at those early
hours of that morning. Then I tried on the internet and got many
blood donors websites.
I got some numbers of blood donors through some websites and I
contacted some of them. One of them was asking me "How did you get my
numbers?" "Who are you?" "I don’t know you!” . This is the kind of
questions we face at a time of our crisis. We, Indians, claim to be
well educated and well mannered. But when at a time of such crisis, we
all forget about our good mannerisms and ask such most silly
questions. I told him "who knows whom, at a time of our crisis. If
you really want to help us, please come and donate blood. But none
came for our help. Naturally, the cab man didn’t know my friend.
However, he took my friend to the Medical College. At last I got only
one blood donor of O-ve and we rushed to the hospital. By the time we
reached hospital, my friend left this world to heavens; without
getting proper supply of quality blood on time!
I was thoroughly shocked. I was wondering why people are not willing
to donate blood. I searched about this on internet and came to know
many shocking facts. There are many websites providing online blood
donors data. Many of these entries were fake. And many of these
online donors are either not available or not willing to donate, at
the time of such crisis. Many of their search engines are not
working properly or not giving results as per our requirement. Rare (–
ve) groups donors are not available on these websites. At last I
found out a website: http://bankofblood.com/ which will serve all our
purposes. However, to my shock, this website also contains very
lesser number of online blood donors. When I contacted them, they
informed me that they have created this website one year back and they
are still trying to create maximum awareness among common man, and
requested me to create awareness in my circle.
http://bankofblood.com – is a world wide website where you can search
blood donors’ data by Country-wise, State-wise, District-wise, Area-
wise, Pin code-wise. You can send your search results by email OR can
take a print out of the same. Perhaps, this is also the website which
is giving maximum protection to our private data. Persons can view
contact details of blood donors only if they are a member of this
site. Their registration is also very easy and FREE. This website
can be used as your local blood bank, wherever you are, in this
world. Lastly, to my surprise, this is totally a FREE WEBSITE for
this world.
My dear friend, I am counting on you. I am not asking you to donate
any money to them. But definitely join them as a voluntary blood
donor. Till this incident I was a very busy entrepreneur travelling
across India. I couldn’t save the life of my dearest friend, Mr.
D’Mello, even if I was just near him. I, now, realize that our life
is worthless and short, if we couldn’t save life of a dearest friend,
at the time of his need, even if we have all material comforts and
technology.
As a blood donor, you are a hero to someone, somewhere, who received
your precious gift of life...Thank you for your gift of life. It will
only take a minute and it will help forever! We have nothing to
lose….but a life to give…
With Love & Warm Regards
Liza Mary
PS :
It is a well known fact that donating blood could reduce the risk of
heart disease and could stimulate the generation of red blood cells.
Blood donation periodically promotes healthy life. Your inclination
to enroll you as a voluntary blood donor at http://bankofblood.com
would save a life or many lives, in days to come. As a matter of
support to this noble cause please join http://bankofblood.com and
request all your friends and all known persons to be a part of this
life saving mission.