Nathan John Country's Highest Blood Donor

 Nathan John Country's Highest Blood Donor

Nathan John said, "Blood donation is a lifestyle; it is a determination of what you want to do. This blood I am donating, it is for somebody that I don't know, it is for somebody that I've not seen; the person totally depends on me as a donor. That boils down to my lifestyle. How do I live? What do I eat? How do I associate with people? What do I tell people? Once anything affects my blood, it automatically affects the person receiving it.
    "So, I have roles, it is not in specific food to eat or anything to get blood it is natural. My lifestyle gives me that opportunity. It is delightful to be a highest donor today. Fortunately enough, my wedding was on the sixth of June. Together, my wife and I are celebrating through World Blood Donor today, every 14th June.
    "Now, I want to speak on how this blood is being used. As a donor I walked into NBTS here in Abuja, since I live in Abuja. I have a form and a donor card. I go to NBTS every three months. A male donor has four times in a year to donate. And, female donor has three times in a year to donate unless it is emergency, depending on your blood group.
    "I donate four times in a year. Yesterday marked 43rd times that I donated in a year. I am so happy; but some of the things we need to know as a blood donor is that your lifestyle matters a lot. What and what do you do? After the donation, there are certain things you don't need to do. You don't need to do tough job or do something like climbing stair case. You have to balance yourself. It applies to the body that after donation, you regain the blood after 24 hours. After 24 hours, you can start doing whatever you want to do.
    "One important thing is that after that donation, you must take a lot of water that will build up your body. It is not necessarily food which could digest within a period of time, maybe after two to three hours. But, water is going to build your body at that particular time. I want to thank God that I have been able to maintain this policy for the past ten years. Since 2005, I have been donating. I want to call on other youths; because we have elderly people that also donate. But, when you talk about blood, it talks about the health of a person. The health of my dad might not be like mine; it might not be possible for him to continue to donate at the age above 70.
    "But, someone like me who started donating at the age of 23, now 32, I am still donating. I am still counting many years ahead. By the end of this year, by the grace of God, I would have donated 45 times. I want to call on the youths, they should stand up with me. Before now, I walked into NBTS alone and nobody followed me. I would organize friends to follow me to donate, but today, I get to NBTS, somebody is already donating. This encourages me so much.
    “This tells you that blood donation is not about having money. It is not about what you receive from people. Just what is happening to me today is more than money they would have given to me. I want to call on youths to also follow me to do this work; to participate in this humanitarian work that I am doing. I am so excited, I am being celebrated in Nigeria today, not because I know much, but because of what I determine to do. I call on everybody to be a donor. When you are a donor, your lifestyle is shaped."