REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT A RECEPTION TO CELEBRATE WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT A RECEPTION TO CELEBRATE WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN SATURDAY, 14 JUNE 2008
Dia dhíbh a chairde go léir agus fáílte chuig Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
This house plays host to many events but none more important than this one which is part of a wider celebration and rallying call right around the world. So welcome to World Blood Donor Day at the Áras - a day to say a huge thank you to our wonderful corps of volunteer donors and to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.
Somewhere today in this very city your blood is giving life and hope. It could be to a mother injured in a car accident. It could be to a child undergoing serious transplant surgery or trying to manage a life-threatening disease. It could be to any one of countless thousands whose hold on life itself is utterly dependent on the gift of blood to our transfusion service.
Representatives of many of their support organisations are here today and it is my privilege to be able to join them in thanking Ireland’s donors today. They seek nothing in return, no payment, no acknowledgment, no thanks, no recognition. They will never meet those whose lives were changed by their giving. So today we gather up all those well-deserved but unspoken thanks and we encourage you to continue this wonderful ambassadorship for good.
Modern medicines and technologies have thankfully introduced a wealth of new treatments but this very simple, almost primitive human-to-human giving of blood still remains a crucial and vital element of many of those procedures and treatments. It is a very telling reminder of our common humanity, our dependence on one another and the scope we have for miracles, for much happier outcomes, when we are generous to one another in the way that blood donors are time and again.
I am delighted to acknowledge the support provided by the business community to the IBTS. It takes many forms and has expanded greatly as Irish firms, ever more conscious of their corporate social responsibilities, facilitate donors on their staff and seek out imaginative ways of helping the IBTS. I know that Vodafone, for example, donates 1 million free texts each year to allow the IBTS to communicate its needs instantly to targeted donors.
The Irish Red Cross, the Order of Malta and the St John’s Ambulance make up another part in the chain that gets blood to where it’s needed. Their crucial work is greatly appreciated.
Ours is a small island with two jurisdictions and in the field of medicine, as in so many other areas, we are working to make sure that there is an easy cross-border flow of information and experience and good-neighbourly as well as professional assistance. It is a particular pleasure to welcome Dr Morris McClelland and his colleagues from the Northern Ireland Blood Service and to thank them and their service donors for all they do to ensure that this island as a whole benefits from the very best systems and services possible.
My very special thanks to the ITBS staff led by Chief Executive, Andrew Kelly and the National Medical Director, Dr Willy Murphy and the Board chaired by Maura McGrath. You carry a formidable burden of responsibility and accountability. This is a remarkable and much-needed, much-used public service with an uplifting story to tell of many thousands of men, women and children whose lives you helped to transform for the better. It is a service that has known other days too that brought deep heartache and sadness. You carry all those stories in the deepening reservoir of distilled experience. They set your agenda of uncompromising excellence, of relentless care and eternal vigilance. I wish you every success as you ally the very best of scholarship and science to the very best of human nature.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh. Go n-éirí go geal libh. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.