HINDUISM advises us to do various virtuous acts.

One of them is Daan —Sanskrit) meaning selfless giving.

This giving can be in various ways such as giving time, knowledge, food, labour, support, etc.

One of these may be giving from one's self, to the extent of sacrificing limb/body, akin to blood and organ donation in the modern day.

There are many such examples of ‘Daan’ in Hindu literature, written several thousand years ago, which could be linked to organ donation.

An ancestor of Shree Rama, Maharaja Shibi, sacrificed his own flesh to save the life of a dove from a hawk.

the Mahabharata, Karna — king of anga, donated his life saving in-built armour to Indra — king of the heavens, a vital skin graft one may argue.

Blood donation is one such virtuous act of 'daan'. Giving blood saves lives.

Did you know that to treat patients in England, we need six thousand blood donations per day?

Only three per cent of donors who gave blood in the past 12 months were of black or Asian heritage.

Sewa UK and Vishwa Hindu Parishad UK, work together to organize various social and cultural activities over the year.

They hosted a blood donation camp in Manchester on May 9, the venue being a Hindu temple — the Gita Bhavan.

Dr Poonam Kakkar, a renowned GP, led the team, along with NHS blood and transplant team.

The event generated a fair amount of interest and a total of 54 units of lifesaving blood were collected.

We are thankful to all those who participated in this wonderful ‘Daan’.

If you are interested, download the app, NHSGiveBlood, the next event in the same venue will be in September, 2018.

Dr Kaushik Chakraborty

Gita Bhavan Hindu Temple

Altrincham Interfaith Group