XN000022-1972-09-11 — Page 8

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Monday, September 11, 1972

TRAINEES TO DONATE BLOOD

A team from the Hong Kong Red Cross will tomorrow call at the

Social Welfare Department's Kwun Tong Hostel in response to a request from

trainees resident there who want to donate blood.

Trainees at the hostel go out to work in the daytime, but are

required by the courts to live at the hostel under active SWD supervision

for a certain time as a result of earlier contraventions of the law. They

are aged between 16 and 21.

Mr. Mak Wing-hong, Principal Social Welfare Officer (Correctional

Institutions), says their decision to donate blood stems from a recent

visit to the hostel by an official of the Hong Kong Red Cross Society.

He told the boys there was a serious shortage of blood in Hong

Kong, and the Society was exploring every avenue to maintain its supply to

hospitals, both government and private, to help them meet emergency needs,

"The trainees reacted immediately with an offer to donate blood

from among themselves, "Mr. Mak recalls. "They asked that a collection unit

call on them any evening after 8 o'clock, because they would not be free

earlier.

"I think this is a very public-spirited gesture, and I hope it will

be followed by similar contributions from other trainees.

TI

Members of the staff of the hostel will also donate blood tomorrow night.

Note to editors:

You are invited to have the occasion covered. The donations will begin at the hostel assembly room in Kwun Tong at 8:30 p.m. tomorrow.

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