Adelle Yii was just 17 when she found herself in a hospital bed with a bleeding polyp in her stomach, causing her haemoglobin (Hb) to drop to dangerous levels. They were so low that it prompted her attending doctor to order for an immediate blood transfusion and another one the following day.

Gradually, her Hb level rose from the initial reading of 5.8g/dl to 7g/dl, and eventually to just under 8g/dl before she was discharged with four months’ worth of iron tablets to help bring her Hb levels back to normal. “I had been deferred from giving blood due to my low haemoglobin level previously, but I never really understood the importance of how having sufficient haemoglobin would impact me at all. It was only after I was hospitalised, and I couldn’t sit up or stand without passing out, that I became truly aware of its importance,” says Adelle.

“After my discharge, with the help of the iron tablets and my parents feeding me copious amounts of meat, I was eventually able to return to my usual activities. Since then, I’ve always been more conscious of the need to maintain a healthy Hb level.”

Back in December 2019, when the Singapore Red Cross launched an appeal for more blood donors, Marie and Bo Yi were ready to step forward to do their part. But a nagging feeling kept popping into their heads – that perhaps it was possible to give more than their combined total of two bags of blood.

“I know that many of my friends were actually willing to donate blood, but were too lazy to act. But if we organised a blood drive, I was optimistic that they would be willing to support,” says Marie.

By taking “one more step” from simply being blood donors to becoming bloodmobile organisers, Marie and Bo Yi galvanised 154 people to register for donation at Far East Plaza in February 2020. This resulted in 100 successful donations.

When Gnanasekaran Velusamy (or Mr G, as he is more commonly known) first moved from India to Singapore for work in 2004, little did he know he would spend the next 16 years contributing to the National Blood Programme, both as a blood donor and as a volunteer.

“Moving to Singapore changed my life for the better in many ways, and I wanted to do my part to give back to the community. I was not in a position financially to make regular monetary donations, but I was able to give in the form of regular blood donations,” says Mr G.

I [also] started volunteering back in 2016 when I was going through a challenging period in my life and volunteering gave me a new purpose and sense of direction.

Volunteering and blood donation gave me a real purpose in life and also made me more disciplined. I feel immense happiness in knowing I can make a difference in others’ lives.”

With nearly 60 blood donations and over 600 volunteering hours in 2019 alone, find out how Mr G gives back to the country he now calls home.

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. For Muhammad Nafis bin Zakariah, his blood donation journey began back when he was only 17 when he came across a blood donation drive held in his school.

“The blood donation drive team was at our Bishan ITE campus back in 2009. I wanted to save lives, so I made my first donation there. I felt good about it and I haven’t stopped donating since then,” says Muhd Nafis.

Indeed, over the past 10 years, the 28-year-old Operations Supervisor has clocked up an impressive 37 donations – not bad for someone who only happened to learn about his school’s blood drive because “they were going around giving out cute little cards with date-stamps”.