Live and help others live, university students told

The Malta Medical Students Association (MMSA), the Moviment Kattoliku Studenti Universitarji (MKSU), and the University Chaplaincy have joined forces to organise an organ donation awareness campaign and a blood drive on campus, in which students are being "invited to be generous so that others might live".

Following the success of the MKSU's annual peace activity, Unity in Diversity, it is now focusing on its latest activity, Blood - It's In You 2 Give.

The aim is to raise awareness, motivate and encourage students to understand the needs and realities of society and to facilitate blood donation by having staff on campus ready to take in donors.

The event, organised in the knowledge that there is a great need in Malta for blood donation, started yesterday and continues today between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. in Student's House at the University of Malta.

Qualified staff are collecting blood while information on organ donation is being provided and students can sign up for an organ donor card in the foyer.

A large number of people depend on the continued generosity of those who are healthy. For the sick person who needs a transfusion, blood may be the difference between life and death, the organisers say.

A normal donation is one unit of blood (450ml) - average adults have about five litres in their body.

"Over 300,000 Maltese can donate blood but barely five per cent do. This is why we want to work hard at encouraging students to not only donate blood but also to overcome their fears and recognise the benefits to others. At the end of the day donating blood saves lives," one of the organisers told The Times.