UK MUSLIMS GIVE BLOOD

       London, 5 Sha’ban 1434/14 June 2013 (MINA) – British Muslim youths are championing a campaign across London mosques on Friday (14/6) to encourage Muslims to sign up as blood donors on World Blood Donor Day.

       “As a community, we’re very charitable,” Sarah Ibrahim, a project manager for the scheme championed by Young Planners group, told the BBC, as OnIslam.net reported monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).

       Leading the project, Young Planners said they will be in five London mosques on Friday  to mark World Blood Donor Day.

       The project would target ethnic minorities within the Muslim community, a large proportion of whom are South Asian, the media reported.

         According to NHS figures, British South Asians make up less than 2.5% of all blood donors across the UK.  “There’s a 20% chance of South Asians being blood group B, whilst this is 9% for Caucasians,” Theo Clarke, of NHS Blood and Transplant, said.

        “In such a diverse country, it’s important that our blood donor base is as diverse.”

        Crucially, some people need blood transfusions for life including those with thalassemia, a blood disorder which destroys red blood cells, found predominantly in South Asian and Mediterranean communities. “It’s beneficial to receive blood from someone of the same ethnicity,” Clarke said.

        “We’ve also seen a drop in the number of young people in our donor base and they need to step forward.”

Planning the event, Ibrahim noted that there were challenges in informing British Muslims about blood donation. “Quite a few Muslims think that blood donation isn’t acceptable in Islam. This is a big misconception,” she said.

        Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority, estimated at nearly 2.5 million.

        The National Health Service needs 7,000 voluntary donations of blood daily with only four percent of the eligible population are active blood donors.(T/P08)

Kantor Berita Mi’raj (MINA)