Campaign encourages people to give blood

A new campaign is being launched to encourage the people of Airdrie and Coatbridge to donate blood after numbers fell to an all-time low during the Covid pandemic.

The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) marked World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) with the beginning of its advertising initiative.

Filmed in Glasgow, it features blood donors across Scotland who have donated and are encouraging Scottish people to donate.

Debbie Mcnaughton, SNBTS associate director of donor services and transport, told the Advertiser:“we are pleased to launch our new advertising campaign and I would like to extend my thanks to all the donors who have featured in it.

“The campaign is required to help us recruit new blood donors. We currently have 96,295 blood donors and we need to build this to 105,000 active donors.

“Allowing for people who stop giving blood for various reasons, this means we are asking 16,000 new or returning donors to come forward in the next 12 months.

“Simultaneously, we are currently seeing a seven per cent increase in the demand for blood from hospitals.

“This is because NHS Scotland is busy post-pandemic with high levels of activity.

“This is welcome news, so we are asking people in Scotland to register as blood donors now, to allow this good work to continue.

“The global theme for WBDD this year is ‘giving blood is an act of solidarity’. We need people to come forward and register as blood donors.”

Debbie added:“our research shows donors feel pride, a sense of achievement and feelings of personal fulfilment after giving blood. We hope these sentiments are represented in our campaign and in the experience we offer to donors.

“For customer satisfaction, we consistently receive a score of over 90 per cent for the overall donation experience.”

“You can book your appointment online and 84 per cent of active donors now have an online account.”

Visit https://www.scotblood.co.uk/ to find out where you can give blood.