TEHRAN – Three Iranian cyclists pedaled from Tehran to Hanoi to commemorate the World Blood Donor Day, June 14, during an international ceremony in Vietnam on Sunday.

Mostafa Sanamiri, Milad Allahyari and Alireza Kohansal started their tour from Iran on April 24. The group pedaled the way to promote the culture of blood donation, raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products.

The cyclists passed Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, and Laos to reach Hanoi on June 11.

On Sunday, hundreds of blood donors, activists, international guests and cyclists including the three Iranian volunteers pedaled along main streets of Hanoi to call people and the community to donate blood and to promote voluntarily blood donation, VietNam News Daily reported.

The event is part of a series of activities under the framework of the Global Event of the World Blood Donor Day.

The event was hosted by the Vietnam National Steering Committee for Voluntarily Blood Donation Mobilization and the Vietnam National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion.

Several international blood donors from Laos, Cambodia, South Korea, Thailand, India, and the Netherlands also attended the ceremony.

The World Blood Donor Day is aimed at appreciating blood donors for their life-saving gift of blood.

With the theme “Give blood. Give now. Give often”, this year’s campaign focused on blood donation in emergencies, encouraging people to strengthen the emergency preparedness of health services in their community by donating blood and engaging authorities in the establishment of effective national blood donor programs.

SB/MG

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