PESHAWAR, June 14: Speakers at a seminar on Thursday urged the masses to donate blood generously to the charity organisations and individuals to help save precious lives.

The seminar titled ‘every blood donor is a hero’ was organised by Regional Blood Transfusion Centre (RBTC) at Peshawar Press Club in connection with the World Blood Donors Day.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Health Syed Zahir Ali Shah was chief guest on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that to save the lives of patients of different diseases by donating them blood was the best way of getting rewards from Allah, adding it was a must to ensure that the blood was screened. He said the government has planned to establish ‘regional blood transfusion centres (RBTCs) across the province.

Mr Shah said ground breaking of three RBTCs had already been made in April in Peshawar while the two would be inaugurated in next month in Kohat and D.I. Khan. He, however, maintained that construction work on the RBTCs would be started in September, this year.

The minister regretted that blood transfusion system in Pakistan in general and in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in particular was poorly regulated posing high risk for all the stakeholders, including blood donors, patients and professional personnel.

The minister said that the government of Pakistan and government of Democratic Republic of Germany had jointly launched the five years project “Save Blood Transfusion’ (SBT) in Pakistan, including Fata.

Mr Shah stressed the need that the people should come forward, extend cooperation to the health workers, social workers and charity organisations in this regard so that needy people could be supported in a befitting manner.

Earlier, project director of SBT Dr Mohammad Tahir Khan informed the participants that equipment will be installed after construction of RBTCs, adding each centres would also provide job opportunities.

The RBTCs, he said, would have all facilities, including blood collection, blood infusion, screening, plasmapheresis and blood test. He urged the people to donate blood to the ailing humanity and save their lives.