The National Blood Service has appealed to members of the public to voluntarily donate blood to the hospitals to enhance their blood supply and save lives.

Mr Stephen Kweku Danso, Programme Officer of the National Blood Service said the "essence of blood donation is to save life".

It had become difficult getting voluntary donors to donate blood especially during this COVID-19 period, he said.

Mr Danso who was speaking during a blood donation exercise organized by Kaysens Gaisie Limited at Tema Community said, the few pints of blood at the blood bank had been depleted creating an acute shortage of blood in the National blood banks.

He said blood played a vital role in the human system saying, blood transports oxygen to other parts of the body and without it, respiration would not take place, adding that, one unit of blood could save three lives when processed into different components.

He said the various hospitals have to rely on family replacements which was the best way to save life during critical condition, "we therefore appealed to the public, religious bodies, corporate world and educational institutions to support through consistent blood donation.

"The blood you donate today, may save a life tomorrow. Blood is a critical need of the body and must be available at all times at the hospitals and the national blood banks".

He commended Kaysens Gaisie for their enormous contribution in saving lives through blood donation and charged all cooperate organization, faith-based organization as well as the public to visit health facilities and donate blood voluntarily.

"Usually getting to the festival seasons, there are a lot of accidents so more blood is needed to save lives, I'm pleading with Ghanaians, who are above the age of 17, but below 60, to walk into hospitals or join blood donation exercises and donate voluntarily," He stated.

Madam Helena Gaisie Stephens, Chief Executive Officer of Kaysens Gaisie Limited, said it was importance to frequently donate blood to save lives.

"It was essential to have enough blood stored because pregnant women, accident victims, and malaria patients would need blood," adding that, "it would not be provident to wait for a needful time before donating, therefore the need to organize the exercise".

Madam Stephens said donation of blood does not only benefit the sick, but also it helped donors to stay healthy devoid of some sicknesses.

KOG Eye Care Optical Center supported the programme with free eye screening for the blood donors.

"Once they are donating to save peoples life, we deemed it necessary to screen them to know their eye status and if there are any medication, we could give them," Mr Eric Owusu Gyimah, CEO of KOG Eye Care stated.