World Blood Donor Day

World Blood Donor Day is day dedicated to "thanking and celebrating voluntary non-remunerated blood donors". It occurs on June 14, the birthday of Karl Landsteiner, the creator of the ABO blood group system, for which he won the Nobel Prize. The first day was held in 2005.

One of the main goals of the World Blood Donor Day is to ensure the availability of 'safe blood' for transfusion.

I'd always intended to give blood, but never quite got round to it. The inaugural National Blood Week (13-19 June 2011), when NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) was encouraging 10,000 new donors to "make a date to donate", seemed a good time to start.

The process is simple. I went along to my local donation centre, filled in a couple of forms and drank a big glass of water. I had a "thumb-prick test" to check my iron levels – luckily, I'd been eating enough leafy greens. Then I lay on a bed and looked the other way while a needle was inserted into a vein in my arm. I chatted to a colleague to distract myself for about 10 minutes while the blood was taken, gently clenching and unclenching my fist to boost circulation.

Afterwards, I sat down with a cold drink and some biscuits (tea, contrary to popular belief, isn't allowed after your first donation). I'd been worried about feeling faint, but I was absolutely fine. The needle itself did hurt a little, but it was soon over. The whole process took about 30 minutes from start to finish, and I felt ashamed that I hadn't done it before.

The blood transfusion will not damage your health; instead, it will save lives of the patients who are in urgent need of blood, " he said.

Hok Kim Cheng, director of National Blood Transfusion Center, said that 3 out of 1,000 people donate blood in Cambodia; it's still low if compared with other developing countries that the blood donation rate is up to 5 among 1,000 people.

Last year, the center has received voluntary donations of 40, 245 units of blood, up 12 percent from 35,895 units in a year earlier.

All blood had been tested for four types of diseases: HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphilis, and malaria, he said, adding that last year, 9 percent of the blood was founded with these diseases and destroyed.

One of the blood donors Moeung Dara said that he donated his blood regularly every three months and he has done it for three years.

"In the past, I had a disease and needed an urgent surgery, at that time, the center donated blood to save my life in the surgery, " he said. "So, to express my grateful thanks to the center and the previous donors, I decided to donate my blood regularly to the center."

A Buddhist monk Svay Sothea is one of the donors.

"This is the 24th time that I donate my blood to the center," he said. "I'm very happy to donate the blood as it will be helpful to save lives of patients in urgent need."