Mangaluru (The Hindu): It is just a coincidence that 35-year-old autorickshaw driver Avinash from Bolar got a call for blood for a patient at the Government Wenlock Hospital on the World Blood Donor day on Tuesday.

He has been donating blood at regular intervals at the Wenlock Hospital’s Regional Blood Transfusion Centre for the past eight years.

Helping mentality

“I wish to help who come to the hospital from neighbouring districts,” Mr. Avinash says.

“After every blood donation, I get a fresh zeal to work,” he says, adding that he maintains the mandatory gap of three months between the donations. Mr. Avinash says he has so far donated nearly 10 times. Refusing for a photograph, a genial Mr. Avinash says he does not want publicity.

Similar is the thinking of 40-year-old autorickshaw driver Anand P.A., a native of Belthangady, who has been donating blood at regular intervals for the last eight years.

Not part of any group

“I am not part of any blood donors’ group. My fellow autorickshaw drivers have my number and they intimate me of patients in need of blood.”

A father of two daughters, Mr. Anand has not only donated blood at the Wenlock blood bank but also at the blood banks at the Father Muller Hosptial, Kasturba Medical College and Hospital and at the Lady Goschen Hospital.

“I make it a point to donate blood once in six months.”

Mr. Anand, who stays in a rented accommodation in Kudupu, says not even once has his wife come in his way of donating blood.

Nineteen-year-old Sushanath Saldanha says he developed a liking for blood donation after attending a blood donation camp as a NCC cadet at St. Aloysius College. On Tuesday, Mr. Saldanha came all the way from Hassan where he is pursuing an engineering course to donate blood at the Wenlock Hospital.