MOSESE Dranibaka of Kinoya is calling on more people to give blood and help save thousands of lives.
The 21-year-old was the first person to give blood at the University of the South Pacific's Family fun day at its lower campus in Suva on Saturday.
"I'm giving blood to help my mother who is currently admitted at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital," Mr Dranibaka said.
"I may not have a compatible blood type to that of my mother but I know how urgent and desperate her situation is," he said.
"I hope through my donation, I can help out someone else's mother or anybody for that matter."
The blood drive at the USP family fun day received a good response from those who attended the annual event.
Ministry of Health blood drive volunteer Jolame Waqavonovono said it was encouraging to see people give a part of themselves to help those that they did not even know.
"It is only when we are faced with a situation where one of our relatives or friends need blood that we know just how important blood donations are," Mr Waqavonovono said.
"We've had a good response not only from the USP family day drive but other blood drives we've been holding. But that does not mean that we have enough, there is always a sick person out there that needs blood so we need people to keep donating."