Blood donors unhappy with mall over festive season positioning

The South African National Blood Services (SANBS) may have had a positive blood drive over the festive season, but some regular donors were left disappointed at one of the prominent blood donor stations.
This follows a complaint from regular patron and blood donor, Grant Gace, who was unhappy that the blood drive at Clearwater Mall was being held outside of one of the mall’s entrances.
Gace, in a string of emails to the mall’s management, slammed them for locating the drive outside. Gace said the move showed a total lack of respect for the integral service offered by the blood service and it took away the needed exposure to the public.
“We scheduled our diary to coordinate our Christmas shopping and blood donation. To our utmost horror the dedicated staff of the SANBS had been allocated a corner outside one of the centre’s entrances in the parking lot,” said Gace.
Clearwater Mall management reacted to the allegation, saying that the blood service was given a few options to choose from. Cecile Braun, the mall’s marketing manager said they had met with a representative from the blood service to confirm the location. ” [We] met Lebo from the SANBS in November and she suggested the space outside Dischem at entrance 9 rather than a confined space in the mall where they don’t have enough space for more beds or space for customers to sit or queue, which then becomes an issue with the EMS [Emergency Medical Services],” said Braun.
Ivor Hobbs, the blood service’s regional marketing manager, confirmed that they had received complaints from their donors and the situation was explained to them.
He added that they understood the mall’s commitments during the festive season and were grateful to be supported by them over that period. “The blood service has an excellent relationship with Clearwater Mall and we fully understand the blood drive allocation during the festive season, seeing as the mall has many commitments of its own,” said Hobbs.
He further explained that the blood service was dependent on centres such as Clearwater Mall to sustain an adequate blood supply, as they were able to attract 283 people and 233 successful blood donations which could possibly save at least 700 lives.