Army major honored for donating blood

Kim Seong-su, a major in the Third Field Army, recently donated blood for the 204th time. / Courtesy of Third Field Army

By Yoon Ja-young

Kim Seong-su, a major in the Third Field Army, was designated as an honorary chief of the Korean Red Cross for over 200 blood donations he has made so far. Only around 100 people have received the designation.

Born in Masan, South Gyeongsang Province, now part of Changwon, Kim grew up seeing his parents help underprivileged neighbors. They delivered newspapers every day for exercise, and donated the income from that to people in need.

Kim made his first blood donation in 1997, when he was a freshman at Kyungnam University. After a few more blood donations, he promised to himself that he would donate blood twice a month to help others, and has been fulfilling the self-imposed mission ever since. When he was stationed in Cheorwon, Gangwon Province, where there were no blood donation centers, he even applied for leave to visit a blood donation center in a nearby city.

He continued these efforts, recently making his 204th blood donation.

“All you have to do is to endure the short pain of the needle pricking,” Kim said. “You can deliver hope for neighbors in despair.”

Red Cross provides gifts for those donating blood, but Kim even donated those gifts to other people. He also registered himself as hematopoietic stem cell donor.

“I am not very rich, but I am glad that I can make contributions to enrich the lives of people as a soldier. I am happy that my children are learning the virtue of volunteering,” said Kim, who has also been donating part of his salary to social welfare facilities.

According to the health ministry, over 3.3 million people donated blood in 2015. Among them, teenagers and those in their 20s made up 79 percent. By occupation, students made 53.9 percent, salaried workers 18.1 percent, and soldiers 14.4 percent.