For 13 years, Vince Hoor had been donating blood without knowing exactly where his donations ended up.
That changed after Hospital Seberang Jaya contacted him several times and he eventually learned that his blood was a suitable match for a Malay child living with thalassaemia..
He kept donating without knowing who would receive it
Vince said he first began donating blood while working as a research assistant at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. He continued donating regularly at Hospital Seberang Jaya after a medical officer encouraged him to do so every three months as long as he remained healthy.
Over the years, the reason for continuing was relatively simple. He had learned about the benefits of blood donation for both donors and recipients, so he kept returning to donate. It was only after the hospital repeatedly contacted him that he began wondering why they needed his blood specifically.
According to Vince, a doctor eventually explained that his blood was a suitable match for a Malay child with thalassaemia.
His blood type made the match possible
Vince described himself as a Chinese Malaysian and said he has AB+ blood with an R1R1 phenotype.
Rather than seeing the racial difference between himself and the child as significant, he focused on what the donation was actually able to do.
“My blood has never known Malay, Chinese, or Indian. It is only to save lives. We help each other if needed. I am a Malaysian,” he wrote in his Threads post.
The Ministry of Health later responded to the story, thanking Vince and other blood donors for continuing to donate without discrimination.
The ministry said the story was a reminder that blood does not distinguish between race, religion or background when it comes to saving lives.
The story reached people who understood its importance
The post also drew responses from Malaysians with personal connections to blood donation and thalassaemia.
One parent said her daughter, aged one year and seven months, was living with thalassaemia and thanked Vince for helping save lives. Another commenter, who works in healthcare with thalassaemia patients, described him as an honourable person.
A person living with thalassaemia also responded to say they were grateful to blood donors, while another donor shared that her husband had previously required two bags of blood during bypass surgery and that her own donations had become a way of paying that help forward.
For Vince, however, the discovery did not end with finding out where his blood had gone. He now hopes the experience encourages more Malaysians to donate, especially people who may be nervous about the process.
“Be brave enough. Blood donation is not as scary as you think,” he said, encouraging people to visit their nearest hospital or blood donation drive to find out whether they are eligible.
After 28 donations, Vince finally learned that some of those 450cc portions had been helping a child who needed them. What began as a routine act he had repeated for more than a decade had become part of someone else’s fight to live with thalassaemia.
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