World Blood Donor Day : Cameroon Throws Flowers at 50-Times Donor
Thirty -Six year old Kombou Tchapnda Ferdinand Martial, had a life time worth of praises showered on him at the World Blood Donor Day event in Yaoundé-Cameroon, on June 14, organized by the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS). The Gold Donor made his first blood donation at 17, a high student at the Government Bilingual […]
The Gold Donor made his first blood donation at 17, a high student at the Government Bilingual High School Etoug Ebe, about 19 years back. That initial act would become a lifetime commitment to saving lives and supporting health systems via blood donation.
Over the years, Kombou Tchapnda has stayed faithful to this course, churning out over 22.000 milliliters of blood to save the lives of children suffering from anemia, accident victims, cancer patients, pregnant women and other persons, often in need of blood transfusion.
Helping a Stranger
Blood donation is still a far-fetched practice for a vast majority of Cameroonians. People are often quick to donate blood when a close relative is in need, than for the common good. This is why blood donation in the country is scaling rather slowly. According to the National Blood Transfusion Service(NBTS), barely 187,224 pints of blood were collected in 2025, representing 47% of the country’s blood needs. This leaves blood demands from hospitals superior to an insufficient supply of blood .
The avid blood donor understood this reality too soon, and embarked on a mission to reverse the trend of blood shortages. Kombou Tchapnda says he wanted to donate blood for just anyone in need regardless of their personality or family history.
« I became a blood donor because I wanted to help end family blood donor replacement. I didn’t just want to give blood to someone I knew, but to someone I did not know, » he told CRTV Web.
After crossing the 50 blood donation threshold, the humanity hero says he has lost count of how many blood donations he has made. His main goal now is raising awareness about the ever-present need for blood donations.
» I stopped keeping score on how many times I have donated blood. What is important to me now is fighting the mindset that blood is sold in hospitals. There are many things people need to understand. »
« Blood is not Sold »
The growing reticence around blood donation in Cameroon is fueled by one of the most preoccupying beliefs that blood is sold in hospitals.
Hospitals often require two replacement donors, and charge a fee of about 50,000FCFA per pint of blood often from the blood bank. Health experts say one of the replacement donors could be disqualified because of health conditions, while the 50,000FCFA covers operational and biological procedures for the blood collected.
« We don’t find blood in pharmacies, so it is not sold. Blood banks are filled with donations from people. We can all donate blood once in three months for men and once in four months for women, he said.
On World Blood Donor Day, he makes a clarion call for everyone to take a commitment to regularly donate blood in order to prevent the loads of problems that come with blood shortages in hospitals.
He says the operational and biological costs for a pint of blood costs almost a 100,000FCFA, and what the patient pays is only a contribution to the subsidization costs the government is shouldering.
The 50-times blood donor was among voluntary non-remunerated blood donors in #Cameroon honored on World Blood Day at a ceremony in Yaoundé. In attendance was the Director of Pharmacy, Drugs and Laboratories, Yaba Dana Basil, representing the Minister of Public Health, and Dr. Douba, representing the World Health Organization .
Kathy Neba Sina