Blood donor appeal smashes its target (From Daily Echo)

Hampshire blood donor appeal smashes its target

12:30pm Monday 18th February 2013 in News

THOUSANDS of new blood donors in Hampshire signed up to give the gift of life for the first time, helping to smash a 100,000 recruitment target.

NHS Blood and Transplant launched an appeal to sign up 100,000 new donors in 100 days to ensure that blood stocks in the future were in safe supply.

It proved a huge hit, with 119,907 signing up – 4,509 from Hampshire – with two weeks still to go of the campaign.

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

New donors are essential to blood donation to keep donor levels stable.

Jon Latham, from NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “It is fantastic that we exceeded the target and people signed up with such enthusiasm.

“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.”

To sign up call 0300 123 23 23.