In a joint effort between the Round Table Pretoria and the South African National Blood Service (SANBS), a blood bail drive was carried out this weekend at the Atterbury Value Mart to boost blood stocks.

Blood Bail refers to residents nominating friends, colleagues or business leaders to be playfully arrested and placed in a mock jail at a SANBS Donor Centre or mobile drive.

To release the prisoner, the public or the prisoner’s own network must pay bail in the form of blood donations.

Round Table international relationship officer and public relations officer, Victor Klass Molema, says the effort came about out of the need for blood, given the shortages the national blood service currently faces.

“There was a shortage, the community needs, so we must provide. It wasn’t our first blood drive, but it was our first blood bail,” Molema said.

SANBS donor care officer Paballo Myeni says the current blood stocks are not yet critical, but they are not where they would like them to be, especially in Gauteng, given the large number of hospitals.

“It’s a selfless act, you’re helping someone you don’t know who will receive the blood, and there are many things you can manufacture and buy, but not blood. You have to get that from someone else,” Myeni said.

Blood donations can be used to treat victims of motor-vehicle accidents, chemotherapy patients, and burn victims.

The Atterbury Donor Centre looks forward to holding its monthly Double Up campaigns, every mid-month (week of the 15th) throughout the year, an effort that sees the service try to make double the amount of donations set in a specific target.

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