The theme of this year’s campaign is, “Thank you for saving my life”.
It 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.”
The campaign aims to highlight stories from people whose lives have been saved through blood donations, as a way of motivating regular blood donors to continue giving blood and people in good health, who have never given blood, to begin doing so.
Safe blood saves lives. Thousands of patients would die daily if there is insufficient quality blood in stock.
When one donates blood, they give patients the gift money cannot buy and something science cannot create. A unit of blood can save up to three lives as blood is separated into red blood cells, plasma and platelets.
Below are categories of people who need blood transfusions:
* Women haemorrhaging due to pregnancy complications and other gynaecological complications.
* Children with severe anaemia.
* Accident victims.
* Surgical and cancer patients.
Donating blood is a safe and simple procedure that takes about 30 minutes. All needles are new, sterile, used only once and incinerated after use.
