The final item of business today is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-11308, in the name of Jim Eadie, on the Imam Hussain blood donation campaign 2014. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament congratulates the Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society on the launch of the Imam Hussain Blood Donation Campaign 2014 in cooperation with the Islamic Unity Society and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service; notes that the campaign will be launched with blood donation sessions in Edinburgh on 6 and 8 November 2014, and acknowledges what it sees as a constructive effort to encourage Muslim residents of Edinburgh and the Lothian region to become more active in donating blood to help save lives, while also marking the near-at-hand Islamic New Year, which is known as Muharram.
17:07
I am delighted to bring this debate to the chamber and I thank my colleagues from various parties who have enabled me to do so by supporting the motion. I am particularly grateful to those who have chosen to speak in the debate tonight and I look forward to hearing their contributions.
The debate provides a fantastic opportunity to draw the attention of the wider public to the Imam Hussain blood donation campaign and to the importance of donating blood in general. I would like to welcome Ifthikar Ali, Shabir Beg and Asif Sheikh of the Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society; Jennifer Wilson and Frances Steel of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service; and the members of the Islamic Unity Society, all of whom have joined us in the gallery. I also want to thank everyone else who has made the effort to attend the debate this evening.
The Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and the Islamic Unity Society have worked together to organise blood donation sessions tomorrow and this coming Saturday at the donor centre on Lauriston Place. They have also worked together to promote donation among the Muslim community in Edinburgh and the Lothians. The Edinburgh initiative is part of a wider campaign that included donation sessions in Glasgow last week and elsewhere across the United Kingdom, with other sessions being held in cities including Manchester, London, Leeds and Birmingham.
The Imam Hussain blood donation campaign was launched in 2006 and was the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. The campaign was initiated to encourage members of the Muslim community to donate blood, and was named after Imam Hussain for a reason. Imam Hussain, who lived in the seventh century, was the grandson of the prophet Mohammed, and is one of the most important figures in Islam. Imam Hussain is known and admired for refusing to compromise his values and for being a selfless person, sacrificing his own blood, in the Islamic month of Muharram, in the fight against tyranny and for the benefit of the wider community. It was, therefore, apt to name the campaign after him. Muharram is the first month in the Islamic new year and is currently under way. Holding the blood donation campaign during Muharram not only is a fitting tribute to Imam Hussain’s sacrifice but makes for a good new year’s resolution to start donating blood regularly. For those of us who are not of the Islamic faith, that is something to consider when we make our own new year’s resolutions eight weeks from today.
As much as the Imam Hussain blood donation campaign, which is aimed at the Muslim community in particular, deserves to be supported, what we would all want to take away from today’s debate is that we need more regular blood donors from all backgrounds, religions and cultures in Scotland. As the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service rightly does not ask donors about their ethnicity, it is not possible to identify whether there is any ethnic or religious group that provides more or fewer blood donations than any other. However, does that matter? Surely, all initiatives that are designed to encourage anybody who is physically suitable and willing to donate blood are to be welcomed and encouraged. That is why I am so pleased to be part of the debate today.
If members were asked to guess the percentage the population who are of active blood donors in Scotland, would they guess that it is 25 per cent, 20 per cent or perhaps 10 per cent? There are currently 139,000 active blood donors in Scotland, which is less than 4 per cent of the eligible population. The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service considers the eligible population to be people aged between 17 and 70 who weigh more than 50kg. The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service is in need of 800 donors every day, with each donor providing one unit. On average, however, 645 units are drawn each day, which means that we really do need more regular donations to meet existing needs.
One may not think that going to the donor centre once and donating blood makes a big difference to what is required. However, a single blood donation can save up to three adult lives and up to seven children’s lives. A woman can donate her blood up to three times a year and a man can donate up to four times a year. That means that a woman could save up to nine adult lives or 21 children’s lives in one year, while a man could save up to 12 adult lives or 28 children’s lives each year. I ask members to allow the poignancy of those facts to sink in, and to reflect on the difference that blood donations can make.
Another fact that particularly struck me is that a mere three teaspoons of blood is often enough to keep a premature baby alive. I know people in this Parliament who stir more sugar than that into their coffee. Let us imagine how many lives are touched by that one donation. They are the lives of the baby’s parents, its siblings, other children within the family and the people in the circle of family friends. It is not only the life of that tiny human being that is positively influenced by one blood donation, but the lives of the whole family and extended family.
Blood donations are required in trauma situations such as road traffic collisions and when there are complications with childbirth and surgery, but they also benefit on a more regular basis people who are living with leukaemia and other forms of cancer. That means that there is a constant need for blood donations for a variety of situations.
I commend those who will donate their blood as part of the campaign this week, as well as all regular blood donors of all faiths and of no faith in Edinburgh and across the Lothian region, and I hope that many people will be inspired to make their own contributions in the future. I thank the Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service and the Islamic Unity Society for organising the Edinburgh initiative of the Imam Hussain blood donation campaign 2014, and for enabling me to bring the issue of blood donation to the attention of Parliament this evening. I wish them every success with the donation sessions in Edinburgh tomorrow, on Saturday and for many years to come.
17:14
I congratulate Jim Eadie on securing a debate about this important campaign, which aims to encourage blood donation by invoking the positive lessons from the life of Imam Hussain. As we have heard, the campaign is being run by the Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society in conjunction with the Islamic Unity Society and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.
I join Jim Eadie in welcoming the people he mentioned from the Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society. I add to those names that of Zahira Hassan, who is also in the gallery and who invited me recently to an event that the Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society organised. I am therefore very well aware that the society’s objective is to advance the understanding of key teachings in Islam and to promote religious and racial harmony.
That is the context for the campaign, which aims simultaneously to further awareness of the life of Imam Hussain and to address the lack of blood supply. The society points out that the campaign works because of the millions of people worldwide who are inspired by Imam Hussain’s kindness and example of sacrifice; they can then give blood as a way to help others who are in need and to live up to those high ideals. The significant benefits of donation should not be underestimated. As Jim Eadie reminded us, every unit of blood that is donated could save or improve the lives of up to three individuals, depending on the circumstances.
On blood donation more generally, we should remember the words of the great social scientist Richard Titmuss, who said:
“We cannot understand the National Blood Transfusion Service without also understanding the National Health Service, its origins, development and values.”
He also said:
“The most unsordid act of British social policy in the twentieth century has allowed and encouraged sentiments of altruism, reciprocity and social duty to express themselves; to be made explicit in identifiable patterns of behaviour by all social groups and classes.”
In countries such as the United States, there is a commercial blood market, but giving money does not encourage a sense of social responsibility, whereas appealing to the shared values of a group does. That is very much what the Imam Hussain blood donation campaign seeks to do by tying in a drive for donations with positive lessons on the altruistic actions of a respected religious figure.
The campaign has grown in support over its first two years, with numbers last year in Edinburgh at 28, 18 of whom were new donors. The 2014 campaign is taking place on 6 and 8 November, as we have heard, and to date it has 40 people registered to donate.
The Scottish Government has advised that the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service does not collect data on the number of donors by ethnic minority group. Such data would perhaps place the campaign within a broader context and help to illustrate the need for a greater awareness about donation. However, the Muslims give blood campaign, which ran across the whole of the UK last year, gives a broader insight into the particular need for donations. It said:
“Not everyone has the same blood type—without having access to compatible blood types, when you are injured, doctors will not be able to provide you with life-saving treatments.”
The campaign also said:
“Blood type is generally related to our ethnic origins. For example, 25% of the south Asian communities are blood group B, compared to only 9% of Caucasians.”
That highlights the urgent need for blood donations from south Asian communities.
The Imam Hussain blood donation campaign also highlights that Islam is a religion of mercy that caters for all the problems that are faced by humanity. In speaking of the relationship between Islam and the altruistic act of donation, the campaign highlights that the religion
“acknowledges the needs of people, thus gives concessions and dispensations wherever needed. Hence, it can be said that a blood transfusion is lawful as a necessity.”
Through appealing to members of the community, the campaign, which has been successful in other parts of the UK since 2006, highlights that concern for fellow human beings, philanthropy and empathy are central to the Islamic religion, while also aiming to address a particular problem in the lack of a particular blood type.
I wish the campaign well in its 2014 drive and I hope that it goes from strength to strength in the future.
17:18
I, too, thank Jim Eadie for bringing this issue to the chamber this evening.
I am sure that I will not be alone in saying that I was unfamiliar with Imam Hussain until I examined his story and the reason why the blood donation campaign was launched in his name in 2006 to increase the number of regular blood donors from Muslim communities. This man, who as we know lived in the 7th century middle east, was known for his generosity and tolerance to those of different races and social standing and is revered by Shia Muslims throughout the world for his martyrdom at the hands of the dictator Yazid.
As someone with a medical background, I am all too familiar with the need for regular blood donors to come forward, particularly those who have a rare blood type such as AB negative, which is held by less than 1 per cent of the UK population. When I first gave blood several decades ago, the restrictions on donation were relatively few but over the years, as knowledge has grown, the list of exclusions has grown significantly. For instance, I had to stop being a donor when I went on to treatment for hypertension. As a result of recognition of the very long—indeed uncertain—incubation period for CJD, anyone who has received a blood transfusion in the past is now, I understand, banned from blood donation. In addition, gay men throughout the UK were prohibited from giving blood until the prohibition ended three years ago following an intensive campaign, and there are still restrictions in place.
It is, of course, extremely important that blood donation is carefully monitored, because of the very serious complications that can occur, but it is also important that as many people as possible are recruited as donors, because Scottish patients need 5,000 blood donations every week. Although some excellent blood substitutes are available to expand blood volume, they cannot totally replace whole blood and its derivatives.
There are peak times when requirements are high and donations are relatively low, such as over Christmas and the new year; only last January, parts of England and Wales came within three days of running out of a specific blood group. Efforts have to be maintained to keep up donations throughout the year.
The Imam Hussain campaign, which runs throughout the Muharram—the first month of the Islamic calendar—began this year on 24 October and will conclude on 23 November. The campaign has been in place for the past eight years, and its aim has been to encourage Muslims to play an active part in donating blood. It is worth reminding ourselves that the religion of Islam is not against blood donations. Indeed, there is nothing to prohibit Muslims from donating blood to non-Muslims, as long as they are not fighting against Islam. Because Muslims who come from ethnic minority backgrounds often have rarer blood groups, it is all the more necessary to encourage them to give blood.
As Scotland requires 5,000 blood donations every week, and as only 5 per cent of those people who are eligible to donate do so, the vast majority rely on a minority for blood stocks. That is why a concerted effort must be made to reach out to as many groups, communities and individuals as possible. The Imam Hussain campaign fulfils a necessary purpose in doing exactly that.
Jim Eadie’s motion understandably focuses on Edinburgh and the Lothians and highlights the blood donation sessions that will take place there tomorrow and on Saturday but, as part of a wider campaign in conjunction with the Islamic Unity Society and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, we have seen similar events in Glasgow, and at a UK level in London, Birmingham and Manchester, as well as other major UK cities. I am not aware of the campaign spreading to my region, North East Scotland, but perhaps the minister could advise me on that in his summing up.
By raising the importance of giving blood, which is crucial, the debate will, we hope, go some way to achieving a rise in the number of people in our Muslim communities who make that contribution. As I said at the outset, Islam is not at all against blood donations. It says in the Qur’an:
“if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind.”
I again thank Jim Eadie for securing the debate.
17:22
Good evening, Presiding Officer, and thank you very much. I thank Jim Eadie for securing a very important debate.
The Imam Hussain blood donation campaign has given tremendous hope in raising participation in blood donation by members of the Muslim communities in Scotland. The campaign has dispelled various misconceptions that are assumed to exist in some Muslim communities and has raised Islamic approval of the act of blood donation. Blood donation is vital, and I have been a regular donor.
The promotion of blood donation is vital in maintaining standards of health in Scotland, and Scotland is privileged to have organisations such as the Imam Hussain campaign that cater for specific communities. The campaign raises awareness of the need for blood donations among Muslim communities, which is vital.
In my constituency, there are various organisations that promote the importance of maintaining wellbeing—awareness of which among the Scottish public is excellent—among ethnic minority communities. One such organisation is the Well Foundation in Glasgow. Its aim is to increase the involvement of the Scottish public in helping those who are less fortunate, and to educate people on how they can improve their health and change their lives for the better. It does so by creating awareness of various health conditions, including cancer, diabetes, being overweight and leukaemia, all of which affect many people in the Asian community across Scotland, and of the need for the provision of clean and safe drinking water.
Another health concern is the spread of hepatitis C, which affects the wellbeing of many Scots in the Asian community in Scotland. The Hepatitis C Trust estimates that around 39,000 people across Scotland are infected with hepatitis C, and it is essential that we raise awareness of the condition if we are to maintain the high standards that Scotland has for its citizens.
People sometimes underestimate the value of organ and particularly blood donation, and the motion indicates its importance. Indeed, the Imam Hussain blood donation campaign has highlighted an issue not only for us Scots but for the Muslim community in Scotland, which must indicate its willingness to help and show some real interchange in and dedication to this area. This campaign is important, and I am grateful to it for making the effort to bring this matter to the attention of Scotland and the Scottish Parliament.
I commend all those champions, all those organisations and everyone else who makes the effort to make health a priority for us in Scotland, and once again I thank Jim Eadie for bringing to the Scottish Parliament a motion that highlights the importance of working together, improving things and campaigning for valuable causes. I also thank the Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society for its campaign and for being with us this evening, and I want to encourage it not only by wishing it well with its work in Edinburgh but by hoping that it will take its campaign to Glasgow. I will certainly want to play a role in that.
17:26
I join my colleagues in congratulating Jim Eadie on bringing the debate to the chamber; I congratulate the Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society on its work to encourage Muslim residents in Edinburgh and the Lothians to donate blood; and I welcome to the chamber those already mentioned by Jim Eadie—particularly my friend Shabir Beg, who I see sitting at the back of the gallery.
The Imam Hussain blood donation campaign, which, as has been mentioned, seeks to increase the number of regular blood donors from Muslim communities, already appears to have been a great success. Tying the campaign to the memory and the work of Imam Hussain seems to have worked; indeed, I am delighted to hear that Glasgow, too, has begun to hold donation sessions. Too often, people who do such small charitable acts do not see the bigger picture about what that half hour out of their lives has done when, in fact, it has saved lives.
I will repeat a statistic that Mr Eadie mentioned, because it is crucial to the debate. Over the course of a year, a woman could save up to nine adult or 21 children’s lives, and a man could save up to 12 adult or 28 children’s lives. I am particularly touched by the statistic that three teaspoons of blood can save the life of a premature baby. My partner works with premature babies every day, and that figure really brings home how, even from a distance, we can help some of those tiny little children to survive.
As the campaign says,
“Blood is a precious resource which can benefit others and save lives.”
That is an extremely powerful message. We need 5,000 blood donations every week in Scotland just to keep up with demand and given that, as we know, blood has an extremely short shelf life, the stream of donations needs to be constant. As a result, the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service runs alongside its regular donation schedules a project called blood donor 24, which is Scotland’s emergency blood donor response team. The team is made up of folk who have pledged to respond within 24 hours should the need for a donation of their blood group arise.
As Jim Eadie pointed out, shortages in blood types can arise for many reasons; there might be a bank holiday, for example, or a major incident or emergency might happen. Of course, finding donors can sometimes be easiest when there is an emergency. Who can forget the queues of people stretching around the block from the Glasgow offices after the Clutha Vaults tragedy? So great was the response that the service had to ask people to delay their donations for a couple of weeks, because it had too much blood.
However, despite our instinctive recognition of the importance of blood and the number of lives that can be saved each year by blood donations, it is still the case that, as has been mentioned, only about 4 per cent of eligible blood donors donate. We all have to work on that.
The blood transfusion service is working on getting younger people to become donors. Recent research shows that only 46 per cent of 17-year-olds are even aware that they could give blood. It is crucial that we engage with young donors, because the average age of donors in Scotland is now over 40.
I know that 20 per cent of new donors come from the give blood school talks programme, which signed up 5,000 new volunteers last year. Its message to people is to celebrate their 17th birthday and celebrate saving a life. That work is extremely important. I will contact the service to see whether we can engage in other ways with young people on giving blood, perhaps through working with youth groups and sports or arts centres.
The blood transfusion service’s work is critical to the excellent blood donation service that we have in Scotland. That service will get even better when the work to construct the bespoke national centre is completed. The national centre will provide a flexible and modern pharmaceutical industry-standard environment for the service’s staff to continue to deliver a safe and efficient supply of blood components across Scotland. That will also provide an on-going contribution to our leading life science research and development industry.
I congratulate the Imam Hussain blood donation campaign on the work that it is doing to get more Muslims to donate blood and I congratulate the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service on its work to ensure that blood is kept safe and used efficiently. I look forward to working with the service to see how we can encourage more people to take part in that simple but life-saving act.
17:31
I add to those of other members my congratulations to Jim Eadie on securing the debate. The debate is important as it draws attention to the fact that, if groups out in the community get together to promote something, that can be successful and create public awareness. That also allows us as parliamentarians to make their point in Parliament and, I hope, to have it picked up in the press. We will see in the next day or two whether the issue that we are discussing has been picked up in the press. I hope that it will be.
In running the Imam Hussain blood donation campaign, the Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society in combination with the Islamic Unity Society and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service is promoting something that is hugely worth while. As Malcolm Chisholm said, it emphasises the ethical and moral background to our blood donation programme in this country. Giving blood is not a commercial event; it is an act of selfless volunteering. James Dornan talked about encouraging in schools and youth clubs the giving of blood. It is vital that we massively encourage the next generation to donate blood.
Since the Parliament was founded, we have been hugely successful in increasing organ donation registration in this country; indeed, we now have the highest level of that in any of the home nations. We should do the same with blood transfusion and promote it well beyond the 4 or 5 per cent who are donors.
I know that the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service, with which I had considerable dealings during the initial discussions on hepatitis C in the Parliament’s first session, is a highly ethical organisation that operates on the basis of research and evidence, with patient safety at the core of its work.
The question of donations from lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people is important in our discussions, and looking at the age factor is important. I used to be a donor, but I am now over 70, so I am not allowed to donate, although I would probably not be allowed to do so now because of illness or the medicines that I take. However, the question is whether the age restrictions need to be reviewed.
I will conclude my short speech by referring to one or two issues. Over the past 10 to 15 years, the amount of blood that is wasted in hospitals has been significantly reduced. That is important, because what matters is not just the supply of blood but what happens at the other end. The work that has been done to reduce the need for blood is critical. That also involves dealing with wasted blood during operations.
We have not sufficiently expanded the practice of people giving their own blood prior to operations. That is not always appropriate, but nevertheless that area is underdeveloped.
We need to send a clear message to employers that they have a social responsibility to encourage their employees to donate blood. I know that many already do so, but many more need to do so, because we need blood donations, particularly starting from now—we need blood donations during the winter.
I thank Jim Eadie for bringing the debate to the chamber and educating us on a society that I did not know about until he lodged the motion. That is extremely welcome, and I am glad to have been able to contribute to the debate.
17:35
I, too, offer my congratulations to Jim Eadie on securing time for this important and worthwhile debate, and I have listened with interest to members’ speeches. I join the Parliament in congratulating the Edinburgh Ahlul Bayt Society on the launch of the Imam Hussain blood donation campaign 2014 in co-operation with the Islamic Unity Society and the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service. The initiative is very welcome, particularly given the importance of ensuring that people of all backgrounds are willing to donate blood, so that stocks are available when they are needed.
Blood donation is one of the great acts of human compassion. For someone to take time out of their busy day to donate their blood to help someone whom they will probably never know or meet is a remarkable act of generosity in itself.
The amount of blood being donated is important. So, too, is the blood type that is being donated. We know that blood type is generally related to our ethnic origins and that the majority of Muslims in Scotland are from ethnic minorities. Therefore, it is important that people from minority ethnic groups donate to ensure that the right blood types are available when they are most needed.
We also know that some people need blood transfusions for life and that some blood disorders are found predominantly in south Asian communities. Those people rely on a regular blood supply and it is important that they receive the right supply.
Rare blood groups are often more common in certain minority ethnic groups, so it is important that we encourage people with rarer blood types to donate as necessary. Therefore, I very much welcome the campaign, because it is seeks not only to promote donation but to raise awareness about the issues in a segment of our society.
Scotland is committed to promoting a multifaith and a multicultural society based on mutual trust, respect and understanding. The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service has met community representatives to set specific attendance days in order to ensure that donation arrangements are not only satisfactory but well explained to them.
The campaign is working hard to achieve change, diversity and positivity in the community, as well as promoting and encouraging integration.
We also have to acknowledge that there can be challenges in informing Scottish Muslims about blood donation, as there are different views across Islam about the acceptability of blood donation, and it is not for us as a Government or as a Parliament to dictate on such matters. However, we know that blood donation has been recommended and approved by Muslim scholars as not only permitted but praiseworthy, and I hope that as a result of the campaign many Scottish Muslims will also come to that view.
I am very happy to offer the Government’s support to the campaign, and I have no doubt that it will produce a great deal of good. I hope that Scottish Muslims will be inspired by Imam Hussain’s legacy and give blood for the sake of the wider community.
I also take this opportunity to urge people from south Asian backgrounds to speak to their peers about organ donation and to get the full facts, so that they can make informed choices about that matter, too.
The initiative that we are discussing relates to Edinburgh and the Lothians and is focused on Muslims, but there is a lesson for Scotland more generally and for other communities. Like Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism also see blood donation as a positive thing to contribute. From the 2011 census, we know that Scotland is an ever more ethnically and religiously diverse nation. I therefore hope that communities right across Scotland, be they in Jedburgh or John O’Groats, will take part in this important act of charity and donate blood. It would be tremendous to see campaigns just like this one being replicated in different groups and communities right across the country.
Donating blood is a simple but amazing act. We need more people from different backgrounds to donate, because our population is becoming more diverse. As Richard Simpson correctly highlighted, we particularly need in our donor base more young people who will make a lifelong commitment to donating blood. New, committed and active donors are essential to safeguard future supplies of blood products.
I urge everyone to give blood if they can—particularly those who have never donated or who have not given blood for a while. It would be great if donors could encourage their friends and family to have a go and reassure them that it is a straightforward process. Blood donations are a vital resource to help to treat cancer and many other long-term conditions, but people who are involved in accidents and in maternity care also require access to blood and blood products. Everything that we can do to promote blood donations is worth while. I am pleased to be able to offer the Scottish Government’s support to the Imam Hussain blood donation campaign 2014.
I thank you all for taking part in this important debate.
Meeting closed at 17:42.Previous
Decision Time