Hamad Medical Corporation to Celebrate World Blood Donor Day

Doha, June 12 (QNA) - Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), represented by the Department of Laboratory Medicine and the Blood Donation Unit, will hold its annual ceremony in honor of a new group of blood donors on June 24 at the Sheraton Doha Resort and Convention Hotel. The celebration, held under the patronage of HE Public Health Minister Abdullah Bin Khalid Al-Qahtani who is also Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Health (SCH), coincids with the World Blood Donor Day 2012 under the slogan "Every Blood Donor is a Hero". The ceremony is a form of expressing thanks and appreciation to those who save lives by donating blood, said HMC in a release Tuesday. Inaugurating the World Blood Donor Day 2012 campaign's slogan, the programme will include promotional shows presenting the culture of volunteer donation in Qatar and embedding it socially through HMC's vision in activating a pioneering national partnership. The ceremony honors 263 donors from the new annual records, who participated in the highest levels of volunteer donation in 2011, among them 43 representing ministries, institutions, and events across different sectors which helped organize field campaigns in awareness of this culture. Furthermore, it honors 10 platelet and blood unit donors in promotion of this type of activity helping patients with blood disorders and incurable diseases at the National Center for Cancer Care and Research. The Blood Donation Unit has maintained the highest voluntary blood donation rates by 100%, which is the highest percentage recorded by the State of Qatar on the regional level for the second year in a row. According to the Unit's statistics, the number of voluntary donors for 2011 has reached 14,927 with 19.352 blood units extracted, while the Unit is witnessing a new phase of development through state-of-the-art equipment for blood transfusions. (QNA)