Blood doesn’t grow on trees but knitted blood drops do! NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) are launching an eye-catching campaign today to appeal to potential blood donors, especially young people, by catching their attention with knitted blood drops hung off trees.
Over 8,000 of these little woolly blood drops have been knitted by generous volunteers – including Let’s Knit readers! - and will appear in public places all over England and North Wales over the course of the next month.
The campaign is inspired by the yarnbombing trend and aims to encourage passers-by to commit to giving blood. The number of people aged between 17 and 24 signing up to give blood has fallen significantly in recent years so young donors are in high demand. NHSBT hope to send out the message that somewhere, someone must donate blood before it can be used to save the lives of people undergoing treatment for cancers, blood disorders, surgical procedures and emergency treatment. Hospitals in England and North Wales need around 7,000 units of blood every day to treat patients with a range of health issues, but sadly only 4% of the eligible population are active blood donors.
NHSBT spokesperson Donna Batty said: “We started preparing for our campaign several months ago by appealing to knitters to help us create the blood drops. We had a tremendous response – more than a thousand people have got involved and we’re hugely grateful for everything they’ve done.”
To register as a donor and book an appointment, go to www.blood.co.uk/trees and click on register now.
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