Chandigarh celebrates spirit of giving by organizing blood donation camps

CHANDIGARH: Commemorating the 'spirit of giving' on World Blood Donor Day and continuing their drive to spread awareness about organ donation, Regional Organ & Tissue Transplant Organisation (ROTTO), Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI), organized organ donation awareness & pledging camp alongside the voluntary blood donation camp at Punjab Raj Bhawan on Friday.
V P Singh Badnore, governor, Punjab and administrator, UT Chandigarh, visited the camp, interacted with donors as well as team from PGI and lauded the efforts. The camp received an enthusiastic response with 33 volunteers pledging for organ donation.
Prof Vipin Koushal, acting medical superintendent PGI said, "Through these camps, we want to build awareness and a positive attitude towards this noble and healthy practice of organ donation. With political will, this initiative will have an immense cascading impact and will definitely help us garner enough traction for the cause."
Commending the synergy between blood bank and ROTTO for promoting the cause of blood donation and organ pledging, Prof R R Sharma, head, department of transfusion medicine, PGI, said, "I think, it is a brilliant idea to have organ donation pledging counter alongside the voluntary blood donation camps as it is much easier to sensitize blood donors about the cause who are already driven by passion and commitment to 'live beyond oneself. Whether it is blood donation or organ pledging, the end objective is to give a gift of life and be the reason of smile to many faces."
Rakesh Sangar, president, Shri Shiv Kanwar Mahasangh Charitable Trust, the NGO that partnered the Camp, expressing similar feelings said, "Community service is the core mandate of our NGO and there cannot be a better service to humanity than saving some one's life through blood or organ donation."