Central Region's Total Blood Donations Rank Second Nationwide

(Taiwan Business News) Taiwan Blood Services Foundation Taichung Blood Center held the "102nd Year Blood Donation Outstanding Commendation Ceremony" yesterday (the 24th). Taichung Mayor Hu Chih-chiang, when attending, emotionally mentioned that when his wife Shao Hsiao-ling was in a car accident ten years ago, more than a dozen kind-hearted people enthusiastically donated blood for the rescue, so he especially thanked the people who received blood transfusions. The charitable act of blood donation by Taiwanese people is truly worthy of praise!

Taiwan's blood donation movement has reached 40 years this year. Taichung Blood Center collected a total of 487,170 bags of blood last year, supplying Taichung, Changhua, and Nantou counties and cities, ranking second among the six regions nationwide, second only to the Taipei region, showing that Taichung people's charitable blood donation efforts are not lagging behind.

This year's commendation ceremony honored a total of 736 apheresis blood donors with over a hundred donations, 1453 whole blood donors with over a hundred donations; 136 group units, 48 schools, 8 military units, and 30 special contribution awards. Among them, the male with the highest number of apheresis blood donations was Tsai Tsung-yen, with a cumulative total of 1211 donations, and the female was Yu Mei-yueh, with a cumulative total of 1213 donations.

Taichung Mayor Hu Chih-chiang, Health Bureau Director Huang Mei-na, Social Affairs Bureau Deputy Director Chen Kun-huang, City Councilors Lai Yi-huang, Liu Shih-chou, and Taiwan Blood Services Foundation Chairman Yeh Chin-chuan all personally attended the event; Councilor Lai can be called the "blood donation water buffalo," with 436 blood donations, and Councilor Liu had 103 blood donations.

Chairman Yeh Chin-chuan said that Taiwan's blood donation cause is, apart from universal health insurance, another thing worth promoting to the world. Forty years ago, Taiwan went from selling blood to donating blood now. Every drop of blood is accumulated through the kindness of Taiwanese people. Every year there are 2.5 million units, 1.8 million person-times of blood donation, with a blood donation rate of 7.5%, while Japan is only 5.5%, and the mainland is 1%, so Taiwan can be called an "island of love."