Knowing what type you are can be major step towards saving life

Wanted: 20,000 Kiwis who could become over-night life-savers simply by taking five minutes out of their day and signing up to be blood donors.

The New Zealand Blood Service has embarked on its 2017 blood donor drive — this year titled “What’s My Type”.

For the next week the service will host a series of events where potential donors can find out what type of blood they have — via simple and painless pin-prick test — and then hopefully sign up to be a donor.

The decision can be a life-saving one, with blood donations saving or improving the lives of about 27,000 people a year in New Zealand, and the process only takes five minutes.

“We never take the commitment of our amazing donors for granted,” New Zealand Blood Service’s marketing manager Asuka Burge said.

“Taking five minutes out of your day to find out your blood type and sign up to become a blood donor could mean the difference between life and death for someone. Every whole blood donation has the potential to save three lives . . . three great reasons to become a blood donor.”

Each year the service needs to recruit 20,000 new donors in order to replace those who exit the list due to a variety of reasons; including illness, travel to some countries where the presence of tropical diseases or endemic leads to a mandatory stand-down, retirement or personal choice.

Burge said more than 50 per cent of Kiwis didn’t know their blood type.

The service hoped the “What’s My Type” events, which would allow people to find out the what type of blood they had in their veins, would lead to some becoming donors.

“We are making it our mission to help as many Kiwis as possible find out if they are the type to save a life,” Burge said. “Blood donation not only touches the lives of the beneficiary but their whanau and friends.

“Knowing that your blood helped a traumatic injury patient get the chance to celebrate many more birthdays or meant a child became well enough to go home to his or her family or gave a cancer patient renewed strength to fight their battle is something to be very proud of. ”

Kiwis can give blood at donor centres in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Palmerston North, Hastings, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. Donations are also made at mobile sites.

“In the last year, our mobile teams travelled around 424,000km, which would get you to the moon and a little way back again.”

NZME is the official media partner of the blood service’s 2017 campaign.