The Responsible Blood Donor

For some regular voluntary blood donors, donating blood feels like doing a routine activity. For many of them, this is a responsibility that they duly fulfill. This story is about a blood donor who sets a true example of this unique category of people.

In the 600 or so blood donation drives organized by Sankalp India Foundation, there have been plenty of instances where donors have posed strange questions. Questions like benefits for me and my family, health benefits on donating, free blood in return, full blood test reports, certificate being used for other social/educational benefits have come up time and again. There was once a donor who also wanted to know who gets his blood.

But then in one blood donation drive, one of our volunteer met a really unique donor. It was a drive at an organization where Sankalp has this activity regularly 2 times in a year. The response is very good and in a 6 hour drive 100-120 donors donate blood. Naturally in such a setup, volunteers are busy throughout and look to attend to donors continuously. Handling exception scenarios is a challenge.

In the midst of this bust drive, there was this donor. He was done with his donation and was seated at the post donation resting area. The volunteer offered him some refreshments and started giving him some short tips/advice on post donation care. The donor listened to it patiently. However unlike others around, he hadn't started

consuming refreshments. The volunteer requested him to do so stressing on the need for immediate refreshments. The donor mentioned that he did not want to. The volunteer checked if the juice/biscuit was tampered with or spoilt etc. It looked good. Then in confusion, the volunteer asked the reason. The donors answer was astonishing. He mentioned that it is a voluntary blood donation and he must not accept anything in return. He mentioned that blood donation is his responsibility and he does not want any reward for this.

Despite several requests he turned down the chance of consuming refreshments. He however did mention that he was aware of the need to have something. He had thus informed his friend to buy him fruit juice. His friend came and our donor hero paid for it and drank the juice and had a satisfied look on his face. He initially was not so keen on collecting a certificate either. After being told that it was only a note of thanks and not really a reward, he reluctantly accepted it.

The spirit of such donors deserves a true salute! At a time when most people talk of benefits, he speaks of responsibility and giving. Such donors make us believe that the efforts to organize regular blood donation drives is truly worth it.

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