As many as 240 units of blood were collected during the ABlood Donation Camp at GCC under the aegis National Service Scheme of the college. Rotary TTK Blood Bank and Manipal Hospital were the beneficiaries. Students as well the staff of the college took part in the noble exercise.

The camp was well coordinated by the NSS volunteers. Sitting through the exercise, I came across Varsha Varghese, a third year student of Biotechnology. On entering the hall, she was made to fill in her details in the prescribed form and then taken through the pre screening.

With a tourniquet wrapped around her upper arm, a needle was inserted near the elbow into the vein. Slowly clutching to a rubber ball, she was able to contribute to the cause. Speaking at the end of the exercise, Varsha felt it was a great opportunity to give something as valuable as blood to save somebody's life.

“I feel proud to have been part of such an effort,” said Jayesh Tejwani. “I recently got to know that worldwide, blood donation camps manage to collect only 60% of the required quantity. Hopefully organizing such camps in colleges will help meet the remaining 40%.”

Gurpreet Kaur of third year Genetics felt blood donation was a lifesaving movement while Shalini Gautam,
a third year Biotechnology students said noble effort taking just 15-20 minutes could translate into a lifetime for the patients. “Moreover, the blood donated gets replenished in another 24-48 hours. So, apart from a noble contribution it also helps renew blood and all its components,” she explained.

But not everyone could donate. Like Jyoti S studying for her BA degree. “Although I was keen to donate, I was not allowed because of my low haemoglobin count,” she rues. Prescreening is made mandatory for blood donors to detect normal count of all blood components, including haemoglobin to prevent the transmission of any contagious disease.Weight, blood pressure and pulse rate are the other criteria one needs to fulfil to ensure safe blood donation.