Be the reason someone is home for the holidays by donating blood
On November 8, SANBS launched the Change a Life campaign.
The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) is calling on Group O and B donors to donate blood at their nearest donor centre and help boost declining blood stocks.
ALSO READ: SANBS blood banks critically low
“The rain brings a welcomed relief from the heat of weeks passed, but its persistence could threaten our operations – resulting in low collections.
“This means that we will not be able to meet the minimum of 3 500 units collected daily,” said Thandi Mosupye, SANBS senior manager of marketing and communications. Rainy conditions often lead to the cancellation of mobile blood drives, which account for the majority of the blood units collected daily.
SANBS is appealing to donors that are due for donations to take time out to give the gift of life.
“We need your help to stabilise our stock levels, especially as we prepare for the festive season,” Mosupye added.
She advised that donors could even donate during load-shedding, as all SANBS donor centres have electricity during blackouts.
On November 8, SANBS launched the Change a Life campaign that will educate donors about platelet donation.
“Platelet donors are crucial in helping us to provide much-needed products for the treatment of patients with blood disorders, cancer and organ recipients.
“Patients undergoing cancer treatment are highly dependent on regular platelet donations as part of their recovery,” Mosupye concluded.
ALSO READ: SANBS continues to battle critically low blood stocks
The conversation about platelet donation continues on SANBS’ social media pages.
With the help of donors, SANBS has been able to carry out the significant task of collecting blood to meet South Africa’s needs.
Your unit of blood will give a needed boost to blood collections ahead of the upcoming December holidays.
Mobile blood drives continue to run across the country.
Visit www.sanbs.org.za or call 0800 11 9031 to find a mobile blood drive or donor centre near you and give blood.
About the SANBS.
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The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) is an NPO which provides a vein-to-vein blood transfusion service in eight of the nine provinces in South Africa, excluding the Western Cape.
The organisation has a donor base of about 500 000.
The SANBS has two testing centres, one in Johannesburg and the other in Durban, supplemented by seven blood processing centres around the country.
About 90 blood banks are serving over 1 000 hospitals and private clinics in South Africa.
The organisation also offers specialised laboratory services, for example, tissue immunology, cytogenetics and proficiency testing.
The SANBS is dependent on a healthy donor population willing and able to donate blood and blood products to meet the blood requirements of the country.
