Caring Day

In addition to being a blood donor, I am also an angler and a marathon runner.

I started running for fitness in 2015 and I have been an angler my whole life. I tend to run three or four marathons a year and so far I have completed a total of twenty-one marathon races, as well as about thirty half marathons. Running positively affects your mood. Honestly, I don’t know anyone who started running and then complained he/she did not enjoy it and gave it up. The main purpose of recreational running is socialising. There are so many wonderful races in Serbia, so you can participate in one almost every weekend.

While fishing is a psychological preparation for everything, running is for maintaining good health, and blood donation is a tradition in my family. I donated blood more than eighty times. The first time it was when I was a secondary school student back in 1993. My father donated blood over 130 times, and my mother over 50 times. For my parents this was a part of education they received in their families and they passed it on to us, as I am passing it to my children now. My daughter, Anđelija, attends a secondary school and she recently donated blood for the first time.

I see blood donation as an act of goodwill, my decision to help someone. After a blood donation, I feel well physically, not to mention the psychological sensation. This feeling of being fulfilled, it’s something that attracted me at first and later kept me going, the feeling that I helped someone is priceless. I donated blood three times this year. All the three times were for a particular purpose. People know I am a donor and then they call me in person if someone needs help.

Our people are full of fear and prejudice when it comes to donating blood. However, if someone close to them is in need, people are ready to overcome all that in order to help their dear ones. Only when someone dear and close to them needs blood, people realise the value of blood donation and they change their attitude about it then.

Nowadays, we have a pretty active association of blood donors in Hemofarm. We are well organised. About 220 people respond to our actions every year, which is a serious number. On average, we manage to collect about 60 units of blood in each of the three regular actions we organise every year.

None of those actions of ours would be so successful without the great support of our management. Since, when you have 50-60 employees who donate blood in one day, thus gaining the right to two following days off, you need to organise work so as to avoid any disruptions. These can be serious blows for a company – you have to reshuffle people and organise them so that no machine is out of operation. Had it not been for such a support and encouragement by our company, we would not have been so successful.

Apart from the blood donations, our association also organises get-togethers and outings. I went on two excursions with my fellow blood donors this year. Such gatherings and get-togethers are there to attract more people, to bring them closer, to treat each other better. These get-togethers are also there to bind us together, to become one team; and success is guaranteed only with a good team.

Author: Darko Tošić, Technician, Disinfection and Manual Packaging Department, Hemofarm, Šabac

Source: Hemofarm Foundation - Caring Day (fondacijahemofarm.org.rs)