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World Blood Donor Day

World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) is celebrated by blood services worldwide and takes place every year on 14 June, marking Karl Landsteiner's birthday - the Nobel Prize winner who discovered the ABO blood group system. It is an opportunity to express gratitude to those who donate their blood in order to save lives, without expecting anything in return. This year's host was Barcelona, Spain, with the theme 'New Blood for the World' with the focus on encouraging a new generation of blood donors.

World Blood Donor Day

Click on the locations below to read more about WBDD events

  • Anglia
    • Actor promotes WBDD:

      Local Actor David Tarkenter (Lead role in King of Blood at Mercury Theatre) gave blood at Colchester session on 8th June. Press coverage arranged of actor wearing WBDD T-shirt and release timed for 14th to promote WBDD. The theatre also agreed to display a promotional stand in the foyer for last week of production and distribute blood donation flyers to customers.
    • Local Partnerships:

      Anglia partnered with a number of 3rd party organisations to promote blood donation to their staff through the WBDD message.
      Mars Food, Kings Lynn - e-promotion and promotional visit arranged to boost local sessions.
      Job Centre Plus, Lowestoft - e-promotion and promotional visit arranged to boost local sessions.
      NHS Supply Chain, Bury St Edmunds - e-promotion
    • World Blood Donor Day Colchester event:

      The Local Marketing team arranged a World Blood Donor Day celebration event in Colchester to promote the day and encourage new donors to come forward for local panels. The Mayor of Colchester, Deputy Mayor, Town Crier and a number of dedicated volunteers all attended to add their weight to the event. By the end of the day the successful event had raised local awareness of World Blood Donor Day and saw 182 new donors registered.
    • Youth:

      The Local Marketing team contacted a number of youth organisations and arranged activity to promote the day including:

      Peterborough Scouts (8000 leaflets were delivered locally by scouts)

      Anglia Girl Guiding (promotion of WBDD and blood donation vie e-news)

      Cambridge Arbury Carnival (WBDD banner and distribution of 200 goody bags)

      Cambridge Long Road 6th Form (Promotion of local donor suite via WBDD materials)
    • WBDD Activities at donor centres:

      Celebrations were held at the Cambridge and Brentwood Centres.

      Brentwood Centre celebrated by decorating the canteen, holding a centre WBDD quiz, and having a Spanish-themed menu available. Platelet donor Audrey Goodwin gave her 500th donation on WBDD and Donor Suite staff wore WBDD t-shirts and had a WBDD themed cake for donors.

      Cambridge Centre was themed, held a WBDD BBQ featuring food from around the world, and hosted a quiz. Donor Suite staff wore WBDD t-shirts to promote the day and had a WBDD themed cake for donors.
    • WBDD at session:

      Sessions in Anglia were decorated with WBDD themed materials.

      Huntingdon team dressed up in the national costume of different countries, decorated outside the session and saw a visit from recipient Lucy Rands who presented a cake and thank you card to donors.
  • Birmingham East
  • Birmingham West

  • Coventry and Northampton

  • North London

    59 Youth groups included Scouts, Sea-Cadets & Girl Guides were sent a letter asking them to support us for WBDD. All those who responded were sent Poster and WWIT Leaflets and added to the Posterdatabase.
    • Potters Bar Parade & Carnival:

      Billy Blood Drop and the Sprinter took part in the Annual Potters Bar Parade & Carnival. The Sprinter had the new WBDD Banner attached to it, as well as flag bunting. Billy & Co handed out 400 flyers and fluffy bugs along the parade route before returning to the tent at the Elm Court Community Centre where 49 new donors were recruited as well as giving out more flyers promoting forthcoming sessions in Potters Bar area.
    • Offical WEDC Re-opening

      Chief Executive Lynda Hamlyn, Assistant Director – Session, Strategy & Marketing Jon Latham, Director of Blood Donation Alan Mc Dermott, Deputy Director of Blood Donation Paddy Nugent, Leonie Austin, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, Sam Fletcher Assistant Director of Public Affairs and TV presenter Dallas Campbell helped to officially re-open the NHSBT's flagship blood donor centre in the heart of London's West End. Mr Campbell, Peter Reiss (150 donations) and Bengu Shail, a leukaemia patient who has received blood as part of her treatment, helped NHSBT Chief Executive Lynda Hamlyn to cut a ribbon.

      The clinic was decorated with national promotional material and flag bunting, and each donor was given a goody bag containing a Partnership Pack and a slice of cake.

      All North London sessions (6) taking place on WBDD including the Edgware & Luton Donor Centres were given cakes celebrating WBDD as well as the national promotional materials to display on session.

      Staff at the Elstree Gate site were treated to a WBDD Cake and the Tea-Room was decorated to promote the day, since they are a satellite station and not part of a main site.
    • Milton Keynes Shopping Centre:

      The Luton Milton Keynes staff attended the Milton Keynes Shopping Centre to raise awareness of WBDD.
  • Reading

    • Town Centre recruitment

      Marquee set up opposite the Oracle Centre in Reading centre along with the livered pool car for extra visibility. 52 new donors recruited.
    • Session quiz

      Leaflet handed out to teams for sessions on 14th June - one side explains the importance of the day, the background and encourages them to get a friend to donate, the other side has a short quiz for the donors to complete while waiting/donating, then hand back to us at the tea table. A winner will be drawn from these and will receive two cinema tickets.
  • South East

    59 Youth groups included Scouts, Sea-Cadets & Girl Guides (ages from 16) were sent a letter/email asking them to support us for WBDD. All those who responded were sent Poster and WWIT Leaflets and added to the Posterdatabase.

    100 youth groups were sent letters to in South Kent and LSENK Areas.

    St Georges Recruitment at the hospital, near the main entrance, from 10am-3pm where we recruited 17. The stand was badged with WBDD materials.

    All South East sessions taking place on WBDD were given cakes celebrating WBDD as well as the national promotional materials to display on session.

    Staff at the Tooting site were treated to a Spanish theme menu in the staff canteen which was decorated to promote the day.

    Local Marketing Tooting organised cakes for Mitcham and Epsom teams.

    Youth groups in Brighton, Crawley and Haywards Heath (where the sessions were on the day) were contacted, successfully arranged visits to two groups for talk and recruitment.

    All existing college sessions for the area were sent a 'end of year' report and received additional recruitment and visit centreing around the theme of WBDD.

    DRA's attended sessions for both HG2 and Maidstone team sessions, providing cake and goodie bags and also raffle tickets plus quizzes on session.
  • South West

    • Introduction

      World Blood Donor Day (June 14th) this year carries the theme of encouraging youth to donate blood. 'New blood for the world' reminding us of the importance of encouraging the next generation of blood donors to come forward and give.

      Bristol celebrated with local youth groups on World Blood Donor Day at the podium in Bristol city centre.
    • On-street recruitment

      The event took place at the Podium in Bristol City Centre Monday 14th June 2010 between 9am - 8pm with a different act performing every 30 minutes. Young people including street dancers, singer's, acoustic guitarists, bands and carnival style junk drummers all came to show off their talents. This attracted a lot of people especially young people which resulted in 106 new recruits of which 75% were young people. Refreshments were also provided for all the donors in the form of a large World Blood Donor Day cake and free coffee provided by Starbucks.

      We also held another event at the Cribbs Causeway shopping centre where we gave away a piece of cake to all new and existing donors, and we sucessfully recruited another 58 donors.
    • Sessions

      All our sessions were provided with a World Blood Donor Day cake and a box of World Blood Donor Day promotional materials to decorate their session and enjoy World Blood Donor Day with their donors.
    • Staff at Filton

      For all staff working at Filton we asked them to wear something red to show their support for World Blood Donor Day with a prize for the staff member who had made the most effort. Five vouchers for dinner for two were donated from La Tasca and El Puerto Restaurants.

      Between 12pm and 2pm in the Filton staff Canteen, Spanish cuisine was served with entertainment from a duo of Spanish guitarists.
    • Internal marketing

      World blood donor day was used for internal marketing in Bristol.

      • Sending out a staff briefing to all teams.
      • Having posters and banners displayed around the centre.
      • Emails to staff letting them know what was taking place.
    • Media Activity

      Monday 14th - Jack FM, Star FM and Heart FM WBDD radio interviews
      Friday 18th - Stroud FM (more of a World Cup interview...)
      Saturday 12th June - Bristol Evening Post (promoting WBDD in Bristol)
  • Southampton

    • Gunwharf recruitment and Spinnaker Tower, Porstmouth

      Marquee set up in the plaza from 10am to 4.30pm on 13th June and decorated with world flag bunting. Lots of awareness generated although only 35 new donors recruited (possibly more if include the leaflets handed out by staff walking around). Less busy than previous years as we did not have a bloodmobile there collecting blood and we were not allowed to park our vehicles next to the stand this year, making us stand out less.

      The Spinnaker Tower was also lit red on the 13th and 14th June to symbolise blood.
    • Other

      Celebratory cakes sent out to Southampton West, Southampton North, Dorchester, Portsmouth and Bloodmobile Teams and to the Poole and Southampton Centres. Promotion materials also sent out and displayed.
  • Stoke and Telford

  • Trent

    • Sheffield City Centre Recruitment Event

      WBDD recruitment event in Sheffield City Centre to raise awareness of WBDD and the importance of blood donation. The recruitment tent was decorated with WBDD balloons and tape.

      27 new blood donors were enrolled, plus 2 organ donors.

      Donors were also directed to Sheffield Donor Centre, 53 donors donated and 67 donors attended, however the target is 64, but this is the highest collection of the week.
    • Girl Guide/Scouts/Brownies Campaign

      The focus for this year's WBDD has been on young donors and Young Ambassadors. "New Blood for the World" highlights the importance of our existing donors and additionally hopes to raise awareness in order to encourage new people to come forward and become regular donors. Girl Guide, Scouts and Brownie groups in Sheffield, Nottingham and Leicester have been contacted to take part in the campaign.

      The young lady fronting this campaign is Olivia. Olivia herself has come forward in the hope that her fellow Brownies and Guides can help to enrol new donors who will in the future donate lifesaving blood to patients - the very same blood products that she once received to save her own life. At the age of 3 Olivia received over 21 units of blood and 14 units of platelets in her treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

      Each Young Ambassador has taken home a WWIT leaflet and is tasked with finding a new blood donor. The campaign was launched the week prior to WBDD and the groups have been given several weeks to complete the task and all enrolments will be returned from each group together. Therefore monitoring will take place over the next 3 weeks and the result communicated after then.
  • Yorkshire and the North

    • Bradford Mela

      Donor Relations staff held a recruitment stand at Bradford Mela, with everyone who signed up treated to a free Henna treatment. 90 NDRs were signed up, of which 35 were BME donors.
    • Blaydon District Scouts

      Blaydon District Scouts in Newcastle teamed up with NHSBT. 5 groups of scouts, cubs and beavers are competing against each other to see which group can recruit the most number of donors. This is was launched on WBDD and will continue throughout the duration of the World Cup, with every new donor registered netting the scout group 3 points. At the end of the world cup, the group with the most points will be crowned champions.

      1,000 enrolment forms were sent out to 200 families, by group leaders and the groups have until 11th July 2010 to recruit as many of their family and friends to become blood donors.

World Blood Donor Day