In a first of its kind effort, Indian District Red Cross Society on Sunday honored 35 organizations and 10 donors who have organized voluntarily blood donation camps under the support of Red Cross Regional Blood Bank, Ludhiana, during last one year.

Commenting on this significant development, Dr Sat Pal Sharma (Civil Surgeon) said that a commoner is required to realize the significance of blood donation and should come forward to donate blood.

Speaking on the same occasion, AK Sharma (Deputy Director, Small Savings-cum-Honorary Secretary, District Red Cross Society) said that the Red Cross Regional Blood became operational during 1983 and was equipped with modern machinery.

He added that the bank was set up to nourish the local hospitals in the entire district and adjoining areas of nearby districts viz. Ropar, Hoshiarpur and Moga.

The Ludhiana unit of the Blood Bank has collected blood from far off places such Budhlada, Mansa, Sardoolgarh, Bhatinda, Nawanshehar, Mukatsar.

Sharma also informed that regional blood bank organized a total of 41 camps and 2140 blood units were collected during camps held from April 1, 08 to March 31, 2009.

Apart from this, the Red Cross branch was also running Bal Bhawan at Sarabha Nagar. This organization houses healthy children of leprosy parents and poor children from all over the Punjab.

Moreover, the Red Cross was also running a deaf and dumb school, which currently enrolls over 41 children.