A massive blood donation campaign was held in Riyadh on Friday as part of the preparations to assist Umrah pilgrims visiting the holy city of Makkah during Ramadan.

The King Fahd Medical City (KFMC), which functions under the Ministry of Health, teamed up with Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamaath (TNTJ) in Riyadh and collected almost 283 units of blood from around 283 voluntary donors at the hospital premises.

The event took place at the KFMC Blood Bank in Riyadh with the help of a large number of voluntary donors, both men and women, from the Asian expatriate community.

Under a royal decree issued in 1405 Hijri, the Ministry of Health is not allowed to import blood. Blood is donated by residents and citizens.

An official from the Health Ministry said blood banks are now capable of providing any quantity of blood of any group. He added that Friday’s blood donation campaign was part of the ministry’s contingency plan to stock more blood to provide services to the guests of God during their visits to perform Umrah.

“At present we have some 10,000 units of blood in addition to a sufficient number of units of fresh frozen plasma and platelets and deposits of cold plasma,” he added.

The official said there are 252 blood banks throughout the Kingdom, which include 15 central blood banks, 17 large blood banks and 120 more to cover all the regions and governorates. In addition to these banks, there are four mobile units, the number of which will be raised to 20 in the coming months.

Speaking about Friday’s blood donation campaign, Mohamed Maheen, spokesman of the campaign for TNTJ Riyadh, told Arab News yesterday that this was the 24th blood donation campaign sponsored by TNTJ.

Maheen said that this campaign was organized to help Umrah pilgrims who fall ill or face accidents and require blood transfusions. Arrangements have been made with the hospital to dispatch the collection to blood banks in Makkah, he added.

“The noble act of donating blood will not only give a new lease of life to many, it also heightens our sense of social responsibility by fulfilling the humanitarian and social needs of our local communities,” Maheen noted.

He said that more than 400 donors turned up for the event, but unfortunately around 70 non-residents were turned down since they did not have their residency permits and around 50 would-be donors were clinically rejected.

A standard health screening procedure was carried out prior to the extraction of blood. Each donor underwent tests for blood pressure, glucose and hemoglobin count prior to donation.

Some 30 TNTJ volunteers who own vehicles helped ferry donors to the blood bank.

Donating blood is a fast and simple procedure. Blood donors can donate up to 450 ml of blood (one unit) every two and half to three months. This amount is small, given the body contains five to six liters (10 to 12 units) of blood. The full blood donation procedure takes not more than 30 minutes.

Last week, TNTJ conducted a mobile blood donation campaign teaming up with its Olayya branch for five days, generating around 107 units of blood from voluntary donors of various nationalities including Saudis.

Every year more than 500,000 citizens are registered as donors with the blood banks throughout the Kingdom. “Some of them donate blood several times according to their physical health,” the official said, adding that those who donate blood several times get the King Abdullah merit certificate.

Recently, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah ordered the Merit Medal (3rd class) to be awarded to 509 people for donating blood at least 10 times.

The majority of the 509 blood donors were Saudis and more than half of them are armed services men of different ranks.