Patna: Kankerbagh resident Deepak Jaiswal donated blood for the first time in 1984 for his father who was suffering from blood cancer. Deepak, who works as a railway contractor has so far donated blood 77 times.

Deepak, who arranged 11 units of blood for his father with the help of his friends, besides donating blood himself, said he realised the importance of blood donation in the moments of crises and soon after that incident he became a regular blood donor to help save other lives.

"After my first blood donation, I was donating blood but not very frequently. It was only in 2001, when I along with my group of school friends formed the alumni association of Sir Ganesh Dutt Patliputra High School and the co-founder of the alumni association, Ashok Aggarwal, suggested that we start a blood donation programme. I started donating blood regularly once every three months since 2001 and till now I am doing this," said Deepak, who happens to be the highest donor at Jaiprabha Model Blood Bank.

Deepak has ticked off four days on the calendar for donating blood and that includes his daughter's birthday and his own. "I have marked four days on the calendar which I am supposed to donate blood, which includes February 14 (the day when Deepak's daughter's birthday falls), May 15, August 15 and November 16 (Deepak's birthday)," added Deepak.

Deepak, who says that he walks around 12km daily, said there were misconceptions about blood donation that it makes a person weak.

Gaurav Sinha, 47, a Krishna Nagar resident, who has donated blood 78 times, echoed Deepak. "People aged above 40 suffer from various complications such as blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol problem but I am suffering from none. One of the reasons for which I regularly donate blood is to keep myself fit," said Gaurav, who had started donating blood at the age of 16.

"One should start donating blood at the age of 18 but when I started donating blood, there was not much awareness on this front," said Gaurav, who says that 80 per cent cases when he donated blood, he didn't knew the person for whom he had become replacement blood donor. "Of the 78 people for whom I donated blood, around 40 are dead but by donating blood for them, I have made such a strong bond with their families that I visit their homes even now. Whenever I donate blood, I make only one request to the person either he/she belongs to my family or is in office to donate at least one unit of blood," said Gaurav, who works as the state head of the high-security registration plate programme of Utsav Safety Systems Private Limited.

Hajiganj-resident Kaushal Sharma, 36, is another philanthropist, who has donated blood 21 times in the past seven years. He didn't have idea about having the rarest blood group (O negative) till he donated blood the fourth time.

"When I donated blood the fourth time, the person who was taking my blood was staring me in a different manner and so were the nurses. My friends and I had got scared thinking that my blood might had some problem. It was then I was told that I had the rarest blood group (O negative) and that I was in universal blood donor category," he said.