Agra, Sep 17 (IANS): Voluntary blood donors turned up in large numbers at half-a-dozen centres in Agra to celebrate Prime Minister Narendra Modis birthday on Saturday.

From Madhu Nagar to Shamshabad to Moti Katra near the SN Medical College, volunteers made a beeline to donate blood.

The Akhil Bhartiya Terapanth Parishad, an NGO, organised the nationwide blood donation drive at 350 centres. The NGO organised more than 2,000 camps across the globe to collect over 1,00,000 units of blood.

To promote the drive, several Bollywood celebrities had come forward on social media, expressing their gratitude for being part of such a philanthropic activity and urging everyone to join the cause.

Many Bollywood celebs like Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Rajkummar Rao, Sonu Sood, Vidyut Jammwal, Boney Kapoor, Aanand L. Rai, Tamannaah Bhatia, Bipasha Basu, Raveena Tandon, Karan Kundra and others tweeted and shared stories on social media in support of the campaign.

Popular names from Bollywood, including Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Sanjay Dutt, R. Madhavan, Vaani Kapoor, Raveena Tandon and Vivek Oberoi, among others, had supported the noble mission of ABTYP and had wholeheartedly joined the cause of creating awareness around the nationwide blood donation camp, urging people to come forward in large numbers in support of the cause.

Hitesh Bhandia, coordinator of ABTYP, said, "We hold immense gratitude towards the response that we have received so far for all our blood donation drives. We've had the opportunity to see some of the most beautiful sides of humanity. There's nothing more altruistic than selflessly giving something of yourself to help someone in need. Hope, faith and empowerment are what a blood donor provides."