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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (BTS) held the BTS 60th Anniversary Kick-off Ceremony cum World Blood Donor Day today (June 16) to appreciate every unsung hero who donates blood to save other lives and encourage more citizens to give blood.
The Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, on the behalf of all transfusion recipients, highly appreciated all blood donor heroes in Hong Kong when attending the ceremony. With an ageing of the local population, the demand for blood will continue to increase significantly, he also urged the public to join and support blood donation programme in order to maintain an adequate blood supply for the needs.
The Chief Executive of Hospital Authority, Dr Leung Pak-yin, highly commended Hong Kong Red Cross for her excellent achievement of voluntary, non-remunerated blood donation programme in the last 60 years. Not only providing adequate and safe blood, BTS has also developed unrelated haematopoietic stem cell donation programme. Dr Leung greatly appreciated all supports received from the public, leadership of BTS management and hard work from staff, and indeed all donations from blood donor heroes.
June 14 is the "World Blood Donor Day (WBDD)" that all countries over the world will organise activities to publicly acknowledge and appreciate voluntary non-remunerated blood donors. The global theme of the WBDD this year is "Every Blood Donor is a Hero", with the purpose to appreciate all the blood donors who donated their blood to save other lives and encourage more people to give blood. Through the activities today, BTS would like to appreciate blood donors and to celebrate BTS 60th Anniversary this year.
At the ceremony, blood donors representing each decade of the 60 years history shared their enjoyable donation experiences and witnessed the changes in service provided by BTS. They also appealed to the public to join them to give blood and save lives. Meanwhile, the celebrity band group, C AllStar also sang to express their sincere appreciation to all the blood donors.
After the Ceremony, the guests, C AllStar and members of Youth Donor Club and volunteers participated in the bus parade at Mongkok Pedestrian Zone. They promoted to the public about the importance of giving blood and to recruit them for blood donation.
Ends/Saturday, June 16, 2012
Issued at HKT 18:50
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