It is World Blood Donor Day on Sunday 14th June and the theme for this year’s campaign is “Thank you for saving my life”.
The campaign focuses on thanking blood donors who save lives every day through their blood donations and strongly encourages more people all over the world to donate blood voluntarily and regularly with the slogan “Give freely, give often. Blood donation matters.”
Transfusion of blood and blood products helps save millions of lives every year. It can help patients suffering from life-threatening conditions live longer and with higher quality of life, and supports complex medical and surgical procedures. It also has an essential, life-saving role in maternal and child care and during man-made and natural disasters.
However, in many countries, demand exceeds supply, and blood services face the challenge of making sufficient blood available, while also ensuring its quality and safety.
The UK is no exception to this. Just last week NHS Blood and Transplant revealed that 120,000 fewer new volunteers came forward across England and North Wales to give blood last year compared to a decade ago.
In response to this, NHS Blood and Transplant launched the ‘Missing Type’ campaign, encouraging celebrities and businesses to remove the letters A, O and B (the letters that make up the blood groups) from their names to raise awareness of the need for new blood donors with all blood types.
Jon Latham, Assistant Director for Donor Services and Marketing at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “We simply can’t ignore the fact that there has been a stark reduction in the number of new donors coming forward ‐ a trend seen across the world.”
“If we don’t attract new people across England and North Wales to donate it will put more pressure on the ability to provide the right type of blood the NHS needs for patients in the future.”
For more information about World Blood Donor Day, please visit the official website.
To find out about your nearest blood donation session, please click here.
