A plea has gone out for Jamaicans to donate blood for former People’s National Party (PNP) Senator, Delano Franklyn, who is hospitalised at The University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI), reportedly in critical condition.

Franklyn’s illness has not been disclosed, but he needs up to 10 units of blood per day, according to a WhatsApp status post from Dr Dayton Campbell, the general secretary of the PNP.

“Comrade Franklyn is in need of blood,” said Campbell, a medical doctor, in a terse message.

Campbell is asking individuals who can donate to do so at the Blood Bank or the UHWI. The receipt should be given to the head nurse at the Annex UHWI.

A long-standing member of the PNP, Franklyn is 62 years old. He previously served as minister of state in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In 2016, he shared publicly that he was hospitalised with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) after he was infected with the mosquito-borne Zika virus. He detailed his struggles with the life-threatening disease, which results in muscle weakness when the immune system causes damage to the peripheral nervous system.