57 blood-red years

Showbiz celebrity brats like Paris Hilton and other wannabes out there have a lot to learn from this great woman.

Long before she became a movie icon and had her name on the firmament of genuine stars Rosal Rosal (Florence Danon) had already begun to have a life outside of the glitzy world of showbiz.

“I was in this world but not of this world,” she likes to say. It’s a biblical phrase she often quotes to stress that the movie persona she was known for was not what she was in real life. Of course, people know that by now.

This year, Rosal Rosal marks 57 years of service to the Philippine National Red Cross’ (PNRC) Blood Program. It’s been close to six blood-red decades since she started to lend her time, talent and treasure to an endeavor few celebrities like her have embraced. Indeed, blood is thicker than the sweat and tears she had shed to get the work done.

At 16 going on 17 Rosal found herself in the world of movies. Her Eurasian looks landed her strong character roles, vixen roles among them, when she was younger. That was also about the time that she got drawn to charity work and to the work of the Red Cross.

It all started with a little boy who lay sick and unconscious in the Philippine General Hospital. Rosal chanced upon him and his distraught mother during one of her hospital visits. She did all she could to help, she looked for blood and medicines for him. Her efforts paid off. “When he opened his eyes,” Rosal remembers with tears, “his first word was, ‘Nanay.’”



That scene, that experience, was the goading factor that set her off on a road less-traveled. There were times when she wondered whether what she was doing had an impact. She was often told, “That’s enough, you’re working alone.” Rosal recalls feeling low one day while watching water from a faucet coming out drop by drop. Slowly but surely the glass soon became full. Rosal likens her efforts to the water that slowly fills then floods the lives of those who thirst and hunger.

In her later years in the movies, Mater Dolorosa roles (and contravida ones, too, why not) became frequent for Rosal, maybe because of the real-life role she had played for many decades and continues to play to this day.

Being mother to her own family (TV host Toni Rose Gayda is her only daughter) and thousands of sick and indigent Filipinos who flocked to seek her help through her TV program (Kapwa Ko, Mahal Ko and then Damayan), she became known as the refuge of the desperate many. She didn’t have to shuck her movie-star way of grooming in order to wade into the world of the so-called Great Unwashed. People knew that behind the tear-stained make-up (tears come easily) is a woman of sense and purpose.

She’s had her share of pain. Her marriage lasted a mere five days and she’s never seen him since. “After that,” she quips, “I realized I do not need a man in my life.” Indeed, Rosal has never had another man in her life, that is, as husband, partner, husband or lover. She is married to her cause, the Blood Program, that is, and to charity work. (Rosal was conferred the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Service several years ago.)

Yesterday, on the occasion of PNRC Governor Rosal’s “57 years of service to humanity”, PNRC is launching the National Blood Center’s Apheresis Center at its headquarters on Bonifacio Drive. Rosal and PNRC executive director Corazon Alma de Leon had given me a tour of the blood center a couple of months ago and I was indeed impressed and happy to know that something like this is accessible to those who need blood that is safe and free.

What is apheresis? The word comes from the Greek work that means “to take away”. Donating blood used to mean giving away the whole bloody thing in bags. Now, through the apheresis way, donors give only the select blood components—platelets, plasma, red cells and the infection-fighting white cells called granulocytes. Or one could give a combination of these depending on the donor’s blood type and the need of the moment. Apheresis is commonly done to collect just platelets and plasma.

The great thing about this is that a single apheresis donation can provide as many platelets as five whole blood donations. Aside from this, a platelet transfusion from a single donor greatly reduces the risk of an immune system reaction to the transfusion on the part of the recipient. Therefore cancer and leukemia patients whose immune systems are greatly compromised benefit much from single-donor platelet transfusion.

The Red Cross makes sure that donations go through additional typing called human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing to ensure that the donor and recipient are closely matched. Apheresis donors may be on call to give emergency donations to those who have been matched with them.

And here’s something for those inclined to be perennial givers. People who donate just platelets can donate every three days for a maximum of 24 times a year. If you want to donate you must at least be 17 years old, at least 110 pounds and in good health.

Here in the Philippines where dengue cases are aplenty during the rainy season, the apheresis center would indeed be a great source of the blood components needed by hemorrhaging patients.

Compared with other countries, the PNRC’s Blood Center is just as good, Rosal says. There are 65 blood centers all over the country, she adds.

It’s been five, six decades since the great Rosa Rosal black-and-white must-sees “Anak Dalita”, “Badjao” and “Biyaya ng Lupa” were filmed. And the great blood lady continues to embrace the mga anak dalita of this country.

Fifty seven blood-red roses for you, Tita Rose.