The Life Insurance Association of Malaysia (LIAM) aims to collect 5,000 blood bags through its three-month-long blood donation campaign from Sept 1 to Nov 30 at over 30 strategic locations nationwide, said its vice president Khoo Ai Lin.
Khoo said according to data, the National Blood Centre (PDN) needs a minimum of 2,000 blood bags a day to meet the demand from across the country.
To coincide with the campaign, she said LIAM is hosting a five-day health awareness campaign for patrons at the Atrium Busana MARA Mall from Oct 2 to 6.
“This campaign includes a three-day blood donation drive from Oct 2 to 4 at Level 2, at the same venue. The objective of the campaign is to encourage all Malaysians to practice a healthy lifestyle and to educate them on the importance of taking care of one’s health.
“It is also to encourage Malaysians to come forward to contribute towards a noble cause by donating blood for the needy,” she said during the launching ceremony of the campaign at Menara MARA here today.
Khoo also said to organise the three-month-long campaign, LIAM with its 16 member companies, via its community service platform, Insurans Hayat Cares once again collaborating with PDN and the National Association of Malaysian Life Insurance and Family Takaful Advisors (NAMLIFA).
She said that the cooperating partners from healthcare institutions that contributed to the success of this campaign included KPJ Healthcare Berhad, UKM Specialist Centre, National Kidney Foundation, ROSE Foundation, and BP Healthcare Group.
“This campaign is something that we do every year, and this year is our eighth edition and the difference between this year’s event and previous years is that we want to reach more people and have more places (to hold the campaign).
“We have all of the companies and member companies supporting this initiative by running their own (blood donation) campaigns. So it is not just by LIAM, all the organisations are working together to spread (awareness), and we want to do it in a much more rigorous way in terms of awareness and counselling,” she said after the ceremony.
The campaign was officiated by Bank Negara Malaysia Financial Development and Innovation director Lau Chin Ching.
Also present were PDN Head of Clinical Transfusion Division Dr Nor Hafizah Ahmad, NAMLIFA chairman G. Saseedaran, and MARA Inc acting chief executive officer Faizul Idzhar Ahmad Yazi.
Lau said she hoped that the three-month campaign would receive a positive response from members of the public in order to help more Malaysians in need.
“Donating blood is a noble act and provides many benefits to the donor. In addition to being beneficial for the heart, it helps the donor to always be in a normal and healthy state.
“I also hope this campaign will help increase the blood supply at PDN because a bag (of donated blood) can save up to three lives,” she said.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency
