VietNamNet Bridge – Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan beat the drum to open the sixth Red Spring Festival, the nation’s biggest blood donation event, at My Dinh National Stadium in Ha Noi yesterday, March 3.

Young people give blood at the sixth Red Spring Festival, the nation’s biggest blood donation event, in Ha Noi’s My Dinh National Stadium yesterday, March 3.

Nguyen Thi Tuyet Chinh and her daughter Trung Anh donated their blood at the event, which celebrated World Women’s Day (March 8).

Chinh said that she was very happy with the gift from Trung Anh, her daughter, who is a student at the Ha Noi Architecture University, because it showed she had learnt to consider the benefits of the community. Trung Anh is a promoter for voluntarily blood donations for Ha Noi’s Steering Committee for Voluntarily Blood Donation Mobilisation.

Chinh has donated her blood four times while Trung Anh has donated her blood up to 13 times.

They said they would continue to donate blood because they knew that somebody would be saved by their gift.

Organised by the National Institute of Haematology and Blood Transfusion and the Steering Committee, the annual event has targeted the young in an effort to ease the blood shortage.

“Thousands of patients are waiting for blood,” said the institute director Nguyen Anh Tri. “We hope that the festival mode would be expanded widely in many provinces and cities nation-wide in coming years.”

Around 6,900 blood units were donated on the day.

More than 23,000 blood units were donated over the five previous festivals.

Source: VNS