Petaling Jaya, September 2004

The scene has become an all too familiar fixture at MSD…

“Give Blood & Save A Life”

Not wanting to limit the blood donation drive to Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) employees, the company’s Sports & Recreation Club (SRC) went on a double recruitment campaign.  The first was to answer to the Malaysia National Blood Bank’s call for more donors; the second was to enlist the other tenants within MSD’s office premises to participate for a good cause. 

Co-organized with the Blood Bank Negara, the campaign took place between 10am to 4.30pm at the office premise itself.  The organizers felt gratified when the first donor appeared at 9.30am!  Eight representatives from Blood Bank Negara were present to conduct ‘Give Blood & Save A Life’ campaign and to also ensure everything ran according to plan. 

The campaign gathered 50 donors and 50 units of blood - at an average of 250 ml or 450 ml of blood depending on body weight of each donor.  “We did not want to confine the event to just MSD staff because the National Blood Bank is always calling for Malaysians from all walks of life to donate blood,” said MSD SRC President, Mr Gan Hwee Teik.  “Even with increased awareness and contribution by the corporate sector to host blood donation drives, the media are always reporting how the National Blood Bank faces shortage,” he added.

The National Blood Bank needs to collect between 300 to 500 units of blood each day.  The blood supply are normally used for patients who undergo surgery, those involved in accidents, leukemia, dengue, fire victims, babies, high blood loss for women during delivery, etc.  As such, the National Blood Bank is required to hold as much as 2,000 units of blood in stock within a week at any given time to ensure it has the ability to meet demand.

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