Vu Chau Phong, a 45-year-old male resident from Da Nang’s Cam Le District, has received high praise from the general public for having donated blood 66 times over the past 25 years. It is more praiseworthy as he vows to keep giving his blood until he cannot.

Phong boasts his souvenir medal in recognition for his active engagement in blood donations

Phong gave blood for the first time at the age of 20 as part of his active engagement in a volunteer campaign for youths.

Holding a “desire to help others”, flash forward 25 years, the kind-hearted man has enthusiastically participated in regular voluntary blood donation campaigns, and has willingly given in response to urgent appeals from local hospitals.

Phong underscored that giving blood is an act of charity honouring the love of humanity, and the precious blood drops will save many lives. He always feels very happy when he shares the joys and sorrows of life with others in life. 

“Blood donations do not harm my health at all; by contras, I even feel better”, Phong happily said.

Previously, Mr Phong had been engaged in whole blood donations, with each lasting only a few minutes, but in recent years, he has mainly donated platelets.

In comparison with whole blood donation which is the most flexible type, it takes up to 2 hours to complete a platelet donation, and a donor can lose up to 20% of their platelet counts after each donation.

Phong said around 300ml of blood is pulled from the donor’s veins at a time into the machine, where it is spun around to separate platelets and blood plasma before being returned to the donor.

Each separation cycle takes 10-20 minutes to complete, which each donor undergoing between 6 and 20 repeated cycles of draw and return depending on the amount of platelets they are up for donation.

Phong (right) during his regular blood donation

Besides his participation in regular blood donations, Phong can not remember how many times he has rushed to hospital for blood donations over the past 2 decades.

He is always willing to put aside his personal errands to give blood to much-needed patients whenever he receives an urgent call from a local hospital, regardless of whether it is during the day or at night.

Phong is now one of the members of the Club 25, a group consisting of those who have donated blood 25 times or more.

Mr Doan Van Hoa from the municipal Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donation, said many of the club’s members, up to now, have donated blood over 30 times.

Since Phong understands how important and noble blood donations are, he realises that with just some of his donated blood units, he can help save one person on the narrow ledge between life and death.

Thanks to generous donors like Phong, many life-threatening instances of blood shortages have been successfully dealt with.