President of the Lok Samarpan Raktadan Kendra, the Surat-based charitable trust that hosted the camp on Sunday, Dr Jivaraj Dankhara said, ``The marketing director of the Limca Book of Records was present here, so we don't have to inform them formally for inclusion in the next edition. But the Guinness Book of Records has asked for the relevant documents.''

Held to mark the inauguration of LSRK's new building, the camp evoked such an overwhelming response that ``we had to request people in the queues to go home'', said camp in-charge Arvind Kakadia. ``More than 15,000 people had turned up, but only those who came before 2 p.m. could donate blood.''

Clarifying that the camp was not organised with an eye on the record book, the organisers said this was the only way to popularise voluntary blood donation. ``Right now, only 28 per cent of the total requirement is met through voluntary donations. For the other part, hospitals and relatives of patients are dependent on professional donors'', they said.

Apart from 20 blood banks of the State, four blood banks from Maharashtra came to collect bottles of blood. ``In fact, we could have accommodated the requests of more blood banks, since we had to turn away quite a few people'', Dankhara said.

Expectedly, this evidence of Surat's heart of gold has won encomiums from social workers and doctors. Said Ramji Patel, a former president of the Diamond Association, ``This shows that in spite of the mad race for material comforts, some people still have their hearts in the right place.''

Interestingly, most of the donors were migrant workers from Saurashtra. Said a resident of Varachha, a migrant stronghold, ``These people have made their fortunes in the diamond city; now they want to pay for it with their hearts of gold.''