Before 34 years any patient in Surat who needed blood had to go to a commercial blood bank. The efforts to encourage voluntary blood donations were very few and sporadic. Commercial blood banks took full advantage of this situation and exploited the same by selling substandard blood collected from poor and diseased professional donor, to the needy patient at a variable price depending upon the urgency of the need and availability. There was no voluntary service organization that could take over this important aspect of healthcare service on a permanent basis in Surat district. In such a scenario around 1974-75 the idea to establish a voluntary blood bank was mooted by the founder Dr. Pradip K. Desai who was the first qualified pathologist to start his professional service in this area. He was joined in this effort by his friend Dr. Vinod H. Shah ENT Surgeon. With the help, inspiration and encouragement from their friends Late Shri Sardar Vazirsing and the then Municipal Commissioner, Shri K. Ramamoorthy, they started to explore the possibility of establishing such a centre in Surat. Very soon they started meeting service minded friends and formed a group of like minded people and started working together in the direction of establishing a Voluntary Blood Bank which would provide the best quality human blood collected from healthy, disease free, voluntary blood donors, tested with every latest test to make it very safe and yet supplied against payment of a minimum service charge that would make the Centre self sufficient on financial grounds. The constitution was drafted by Shri Ramamoorthy and Shri I. J. Desai with the primary objective to encourage, motivate and support voluntary blood donation and to run an ultramodern blood bank on "not for profit" basis.
Their efforts resulted in registration of a charitable trust and the name "Surat Raktadan Kendra" was coined. This was done on 1st October 1976.
The most difficult task before the Kendra was to motivate people to donate their blood and educate them that donating blood will not harm their health. Very rightly Kendra started its efforts with the college students and youth in educational and service institutions. The response was instantaneous and so encouraging that it carried this noble message of voluntary blood donation to the families of all classes and creeds living in Surat and nearby villages. The enthusiasm amongst the voluntary blood donors spread like a wild fire and very soon Kendra started meeting the needs of the hospitals and treating physicians all over South Gujarat. Under such circumstances, the commercial blood banks had no other choice but to close down their doors permanently.
This success encouraged all the voluntary workers in this field so that organization of camps to collect blood became a regular social activity in almost all the areas of Surat and surrounding villages.
