The South African National Blood Service Pay Bail in Blood Drive garnered much community support. Blood donors went to the Greenstone Shopping Centre to donate blood on October 31. This time, however, ‘jailed’ community members could only be ‘bailed’ by blood.

SANBS Public Relations practitioner Relebohile Matsimbi explained that through the Jail and Bail Blood Drive, they got prominent community members, jailed them, and required them to bring ten people to donate blood as bail.

“It’s a fun way of saving lives and creating awareness. We do it once a quarter. We did one in June at the Park Meadows donor centre,” Matsimbi said.

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She added that the aim is to encourage communities to help maintain adequate blood stock levels. Matsimbi added, “Currently our blood supply levels are critically low, which puts the lives of patients at risk because blood is needed daily.

“We have patients who are anaemic, mothers giving birth, cancer patients, patients in open-heart surgery needing blood. So all those patients are at risk of not getting blood if our blood continues to drop.”

She added that, ideally, they need a five-day supply of blood stock to meet demand. But at that time, their stock levels were below five, which was putting severe pressure on their operations. “So we encourage people, especially new donors. If you have never donated blood before, please come and donate and start saving lives. You can save up to three lives with one unit of blood because that blood will be separated into red cells, plasma and platelets.”

Donor Bruce Matz shared that he experienced a blood shortage at a hospital, and it wasn’t pleasant, so he has been donating ever since. He said he was number six in bailing Fiona Pickett. “So yeah, it’s a very important thing and a lot more people should get involved.”

Another donor, 69-year-old Martin Nel, started donating at 18, and he said he does it to help three to four people who need his blood. He added that this was his way of living, and he liked helping other people move forward in life and be healthy, like him. Nel, who had completed his 156th park run that morning, advised, “Stay healthy and stay focused out there. I will never stop donating, and I will keep donating as long as God keeps me on this earth.”

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Meanwhile, Matsimbi said they run blood drives every day, and they try to make it convenient by going to places such as malls, churches, and corporates. SANBS will also be out there throughout the festive season to make sure they collect enough blood to fulfil their mandate. On December 5, they will launch a major campaign called Mall to Action. They will be at different malls for this national campaign aimed at ramping up stock for the festive season.

Matsimbi said on October 31, they had set a target of 50 whole blood donations and collected 62, with 11 new donors and 15 deferrals (potential donors turned away for various reasons). Matsimbi thanked everyone who donated that day, as well as Showboat Cars, for their support.