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#Challenge: Have a Heart and donate blood

17 February 2021 | Story Andre Damons | Photo Pixabay

blood donation_web read more — Two final-year MBChB students show how it is done when they donated blood earlier this year.

Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) staff and students in the Faculty of Health Sciences have challenged other departments in the faculty as well as other faculties and departments at the University of the Free State (UFS) to see whose staff and students will donate the most blood!

Mrs Angela Vorster, UFS Clinical Psychologist, says the South African National Blood Services (SANBS) has been appealing for increased blood donations since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last year. In order to provide support, the School of Clinical Medicine at the UFS held a virtual blood donation challenge in 2020, to encourage students to participate in altruistic behaviour and to enable the pre-clinical platform year groups to also feel like they are providing essential medical assistance.

“This was hugely successful and consequently we decided to include a blood donation challenge in our annual Mental Health Awareness programme. The benefits of donating blood are not only of a physiological nature (e.g. it assists in reducing iron levels and helps to control high blood pressure etc.) but means you are giving something of yourself. It will definitely save at least one life, perhaps more, and is incredibly beneficial in enhancing feelings of self-worth and personal meaning,” says Vorster.

The Faculty of Health Sciences invited the SANBS to UFS this week to provide all students and staff with the opportunity to donate blood at their place of work and study. So Have a Heart and take a few minutes to relax with a cookie and cool drink while your heart does the work of blood donation for you.

Details are as follows:

When: 18 and 19 February

Where: Francois Retief Foyer UFS

Time: 07:00-14:30

News Archive

"May Month of Compassion" for UFS staff

2011-05-04

From the left: Louis van Wyk (Central Region, Events Coordinator of ER 24) and Prof. Gert van Zyl, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences
Photo: Gerda-Marie Viviers

The Health and Wellness Centre of our university has kick-started the “Action of Compassion” which is aimed at promoting physical health for staff members of our university. This initiative is done in collaboration with Medi-Clinic and Pathcare who will be offering medical screening tests from 3 May 2011 until 13 May 2011. This forms part of the “Wake up to your Wellness – Take Control” programme of the Health and Wellness Centre. The tests will be done at 27 stations across our Main Campus. On 16 May the Wellness Centre will be at the South Campus and the date for a visit at the Qwaqwa Campus is to be established later. “The reason why we are doing this, is to conduct a research on Staff Wellness, give the staff feedback on their health and to create a database using the information we receive, so we can evaluate the health of our staff members and have them view their own status over time and whether they are making the right wellness choices,” said Dr Annette Prins.

This is a once-a-year initiative. Last year an estimated 1 100 staff members participated. This year the Health and Wellness Centre hopes to increase the figures. The medical screenings will include services like blood pressure, weight, height and BMI which will be conducted by Medi-Clinic and the cholesterol and blood glucose screenings will be conducted by Pathcare.

4 May 2011

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