PESHAWAR: The parents of thalassaemia patients and representatives of a non-governmental organisation have called upon volunteers to donate more blood for coping with blood shortage.

During a blood donation camp at Peshawar Press Club, Dr Siyal Noor of Hamza Foundation told journalists that 1,222 thalassaemia patients were registered with the foundation while most of them belonged to poor family and could not afford injections as those were expensive.

He said that all educational institutions were closed and most students of colleges and universities were not present to provide blood to thalassaemia patients so only three to five blood bags were collected that were not enough.

Flanked by a number of parents of the patients and social workers, Dr Siyal said that due to lockdown in the province, thalassaemia patients were facing the worst health conditions because of shortage of blood at the NGOs hospital and blood transfusion services in Peshawar.

He said that there were different kinds of thalassaemia patients. He said that some of patients needed blood transfusion on weekly basis while some needed it on monthly basis. He added that most of them faced problems as volunteers were rarely available due to the closure of educational institutions and offices.

About 40 journalists including reporters, photographers, press club employees and cameramen donated their blood to the foundation to help thalassaemia patients.

Published in Dawn, April 9th, 2020