26 September 2023
This Saturday, September 23, almors 140 blood donors were thanked in Bergem during a ceremony in their honor. Their commitment, renewed year after year, made it possible to support the sick and injured whose treatment required numerous transfusions.
The ceremony took place in the presence of HRH the Grand Duchess, the Minister of Health Paulette Lenert and the mayor of Mondercange Jeannot Fürpass. It allows us to thank those who have already donated their blood or plasma 20, 40 or 80 times in Luxembourg during their life. Without them, the functioning of the Luxembourg health system would be impossible.
Doctor Anne Schuhmacher, medical director of the Blood Transfusion Center, explains how “donating blood is not an act like any other. Each donation helps up to 3 people who will receive a blood product, whether red blood cells, platelets or plasma. Everyone we meet this Saturday deserves our respect, because their commitment has lasted several years, sometimes several decades. Their perseverance made the difference for many people at a time in their lives when they really needed help. There are no words to thank them!“
The mission of the Blood Transfusion Center of the Luxembourg Red Cross is to ensure self-sufficiency in blood products. It is only possible thanks to the generosity of blood donors. There were 15,170 registered on the Red Cross lists in 2022, of which 1,511 donated for the first time. Doctor Anne Schuhmacher underlines how the “22,365 donations last year are so many gifts to those who need them. However, we must not let our guard down. We are still at a peak for daily whole blood requirements and still too low for plasma. Today we thank loyal donors, but I also have a thought for those who gave for the first time this year: they allow us to continue fulfilling our mission day after day. Without a committed human being, nothing is possible: we don’t know how to ‘make blood’, we can only collect and distribute what people come to give us.“