Blood donor campaign success in Gloucestershire (From Gazette Series)

Blood donor campaign proves success in Gloucestershire with more than 1500 signing up

1:06pm Friday 22nd February 2013 in News By Lucy Fulford

A CAMPAIGN to recruit new blood donors in Gloucestershire has been hailed a success after almost 2,000 people signed up.

The national target to gain 100,0000 new donors in the 100 days before Valentine’s Day was smashed two weeks early.

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) launched the campaign following a dramatic decline in the number of younger donors signing up in 2012.

In total 1,851 people in the county signed up to help protect blood stocks.

Jon Latham of the NHSBT said: "It is fantastic that we exceeded the target and people signed up with such enthusiasm and hopefully any new registrants who haven’t got around to donating will do so soon.

"We rely on new blood donors to keep coming forward as we need more than 1,000 new registrations every day to replace those donors who can no longer donate."

Young people are vital to the blood service, with 17 to 24-year-olds accounting for around 40 per cent of new donors each year.

To find out if you are eligible to become a blood donor and make a date to donate, visit Blood.co.uk.