Monday June 1, 2009 TheStar
Some 200 people turned up at StemLife Berhad’s premises at Megan Avenue II, in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng, Kuala Lumpur, recently, to donate blood to the National Blood Bank.
The event, organised by cord blood bank StemLife and supported by the Thalassae-mia Association of Malaysia, was held in conjunction with Thalassaemia Day which fell on May 8.
“We are happy that our effort has been very successful as we collected 94 units of blood within hours,” said StemLife managing director Sharon Low.
She said StemLife roped in the Thalassaemia Association of Malaysia (TAM) because cord blood had been used to successfully treat thalassaemia patients.
TAM assistant secretary Zarina Sultan said many people were not aware that there was such an ailment as thalassaemia, which is the name given to a group of inherited blood disorders that affect the body’s ability to create red blood cells.
Symptoms include fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath and a yellow discolouration of the skin.
“This blood donation drive has helped us to raise awareness of thalassaemia and encourage the public, especially young couples and newly weds, to go for a test to confirm if they are carriers of the gene which causes the ailment,” she said.
During the event, StemLife also raised RM1,000 for TAM by selling Zoe’s Cupcakes donated by that company.
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