Bengaluru policemen donate blood for treatment of children with cancer

The west zone of Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner of Police’ s (DCP) office had temporarily been turned into a blood donation camp on Saturday. The initiative was taken up jointly by a Bengaluru NGO called Sustainable Environment Development Trust (SEDT), Lions Blood bank and Bengaluru Police, west division.

The donated blood was going to be used for treating children at the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology Cancer Research. A total of 75 police personnel of all ranks participated in the blood donation camp Including DCP Sanjeev Patil himself. “Young children who are receiving chemotherapy experience extreme pain and they will have to be given platelets,” said Prakruthi Prasanna, the president of SEDT.

Despite them having a lot of donors, during the pandemic situation, they found that the donors were reluctant about donating blood. “More than 90% of donors are reluctant to donate blood out of some fear due to the pandemic. The other issue is that they worry about the infection in the camp itself,” Prasanna added. DCP Sanjeev Patil speaking to TNM said that they too had noticed a shortage in donors since the second wave of COVID-19 infections began.

“When we were visiting hospitals during the second wave for various reasons, we found out that due to fear of COVID-19, patients who needed blood were suffering. People were not forthcoming to donate blood as there was a worry that they might contract COVID-19 in places like labs and these camps,” he said.

“When the second wave was over, we were approached by SEDT and we conducted this camp. We wish to conduct another camp in the future also. A single unit of blood could be used to save three lives. So, we want to drive home this fact that blood donation is very important through the initiative,” he added.

Prasanna said that the Bengaluru police have cooperated very well with their initiative and till now, they have collected over 10,000 units of blood from the police department’s initiative.