Making merit for those in need

In an attempt to make donating blood and signing up for the donation of organs and eyes as convenient and to encourage more people to join these worthy schemes, The Mall Group and the Thai Red Cross Society recently launched the MHeart centre at The Mall Bang Kapi.
Public officials and celebrities joined the Mother’s Day launch, which also paid tribute to Her Majesty the Queen on the occasion of her 81stBirthday Anniversary, among them members of the military, police and district office along with paralympic athletes and students and academics from Ramkamhaeng University.
The Mall Group has been hosting blood drives for 10 years and to date has collected more than 141 million cubic centimetres of this life-saving fluid. However, annual donations fall short of actual need, which the Thai Red Cross Society currently estimates at 1.95 million cc of blood a year in Bangkok, 630,000 cc in its vicinities, and 1.32 million cc in certain regions.
Donating blood helps not only receivers, but also donors who get a health check when they make a donation. Donating blood allows the body to generate new red and white blood cells, which promotes oxygen in the blood stream and strengthens immunity, respectively.
Organ donations have increased in recent years but still fall short of needs. There are two types of organ donations. The first is from living individuals who can donate kidneys or livers, and the donors must be a family member or spouse of the recipient. If the donor is unhealthy or the exchange is incompatible, then recipients can receive organs from the recently deceased who are able to donate their hearts, lungs, kidneys, livers, and pancreases. Becoming an organ donor is considered the ultimate merit in Buddhism.
Likewise the Thai Red Cross is in constant need of eye donors. Once a person dies, the eyes will deteriorate so it is best to collect them within six hours. Removing the eyes does not distort the donor’s face as the doctors handle the situation with the utmost care. Giving someone the ability to see is also a major way of merit making.
The MHeart donation centre at The Mall Bang Kapi is on the 3rd floor by the exit to the parking lot and open daily from noon to 6pm. New locations at the Ngam Wong Wan, Bang Khae and Nakhon Ratchasima branches will be launched by the end of the year.