Nurse Audrick McDowe-Reid (left) checks to make sure nothing goes wrong, as Tessanne Chin gives blood to the Scotiabank blood drive at the office of the National Blood Transfusion Service yesterday. Her sister, Tami Chynn, takes a picture and gives moral support. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer
There were many famous faces present at Kingston's blood bank as Scotiabank marked its annual blood drive.
Bruce Bowen, president and chief executive officer of the Scotiabank Group, addressed a group including Tami Chynn, Tessanne Chin and Shaggy, there to lend support, having only heard about the drive the previous day.
Also present was Sara Lawrence, Miss Jamaica World 2006, who was featured in a promotional video.
The celebrity contingent was there to highlight the desperate need for increased blood donation and, as Joylene Griffiths-Irving, director of public, corporate and government affairs at Scotiabank said, "To make heroes out of blood donors." Two of those heroes were present - Kingston's two top donors, Sonja Baines and John Borrows, who have given 65 and more than 100 units respectively.
We are all affected
The celebrities present were eager to appeal to Gleaner readers.
"All of us are affected by this," said Tami Chynn, a self-confessed needle-phoebe, who was there with her sister to give blood for the first time. "You never know when it might be you," she added.
Shaggy, who is heavily involved with the Bustamante Hospital for Children, was especially proud, as the first 120 units taken are going to help those children needing open-heart surgery at the new ward this week.
Talking to The Gleaner before going to give blood, he urged Jamaicans to donate: "The problem with giving is that it is usually financial. This is not. They cannot hide and say they don't have it to give."
Sara Lawrence was also earnest in her plea for support: "You don't need superpowers, you don't need a cape, but you too can be heroes." Lawrence, a medical student, added: "You give for the sense of giving. You don't know who it's going to help, but you give anyway."
Dr Evadne Williams, director of the National Blood Transfusion Service, described how, in 2008, donations amounted to only 26,300 units, "woefully short" of the 50,000 -80,000 units required annually.
The drive is on week at hospitals around Jamaica, while a tour of the island starts next week.