SANBS in hunt for new blood on Human Rights Day

The South African National Blood Service (SANBS) is implementing a mass blood drive next Wednesday, 21 March, to recruit new donors and ensure there is sufficient stock of safe blood available in South Africa.

The #NewBlood campaign is targeting the collection of 4 500 units of blood on the public holiday. 
The SANBS is especially calling on first-time donors and lapsed donors who know that their blood type is Group O, to donate.

“Currently less than 1% of South Africans donate blood, even though it demands little more than giving up 30 minutes of their time at least twice a year,” said Silungile Mlambo, chief marketing officer for the SANBS. “That means that we often experience shortages which place lives at risk; lives of babies born prematurely, lives of accident victims, lives of women giving birth and the lives of people fighting cancer.” 

“The beauty of blood donation is that virtually anyone can do it. You don’t need to have money or live in a fancy house or have a graduate degree or a fancy car. If you’re over 16 years old, weigh over 50kg and practice a healthy lifestyle, you can be a blood donor. By giving blood you can save up to three people’s lives. So something that costs you nothing is absolutely priceless for someone in need of blood. Nobody can make a greater impact than saving someone else’s life,” said Mlambo.
She says that the SANBS is launching the #NewBlood campaign on Human Rights Day because it signals the start of the Easter holiday period.

“Holidays are unfortunately the time when we traditionally run short of blood because we are not able to host our regular drives at schools and university campuses. But this year, the SANBS wants to start turning things around. The #NewBlood campaign is asking you to lend us a hand by becoming a regular blood donor,” Mlambo added. 

“We are ever grateful to our regular hero donors without whom we would not exist. We thank them for their continued donations but ask that they help us further by becoming ambassadors for blood donation. Tell first-time and lapsed donors how it feels to be a hero just by donating blood. We would appreciate it if they could help us save even more lives,” Mlambo said.

First-time donors must produce identification when presenting for a donation.