The Welsh Blood Service has launched a new campaign aimed at encouraging a new generation of blood donors across Wales.
The Gwaed Ifanc/Young Blood initiative is designed to engage students and young people in blood donation and stem cell registration, while inviting schools and colleges to play a key role in promoting the message.
The Welsh Blood Service collects around 100,000 blood donations each year to supply 19 hospitals across Wales. However, only 3% of the eligible population currently donates, and fewer than 15% of those are under 30.
Each donation can save up to three lives, supporting treatments for accident victims, patients with blood cancers, and mothers and newborns during childbirth.
The service has worked with schools for several years, with many hosting donation sessions and stem cell swab drives. The new campaign aims to strengthen these partnerships by reaching out to sixth forms and colleges across the country.
Addressing stem cell shortages
The service also hopes to recruit more than 6,000 people aged 16-30 and 16-45 from black, Asian, mixed or minority ethnic backgrounds to its stem cell registry annually. Around 2,000 people in the UK require a stem cell transplant each year, but three in ten patients do not find a match. That figure rises to seven in ten for patients from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Ysgol Stanwell School in South Wales has supported the Welsh Blood Service since 2015, with students and staff collectively saving up to 3,000 lives and more than 120 students joining the stem cell registry.
Ruby Redford, a sixth form student at Ysgol Stanwell School in Penarth, said: “Giving blood for the first time in school was so rewarding, knowing 10 minutes of my life could give someone theirs back.
“I know that giving blood once from a young age has inspired me to now be a lifelong donor.”
Susan Adams, sixth form coordinator at Ysgol Stanwell School, said: “The blood donation sessions we host at Stanwell are always a highlight in the school calendar, both for students and staff.
“It is vitally important to us as a school that we encourage young people to become blood donors and save lives, to make a difference to our community and patients in need.
“Our next session marks ten years of supporting the Welsh Blood Service, and we are incredibly proud of how our students continually step forward to donate blood. To have collectively saved nearly 3,000 lives so far is both inspiring and humbling.”
‘Young people are the future’
Alan Prosser, director of the Welsh Blood Service, said: “Young people are the future of the Welsh Blood Service.
“Schools and colleges play a vital role in helping us to engage young people in blood donation and our stem cell registry. Donors often tell us they would’ve started donating blood a lot earlier had their school hosted sessions.
“Gwaed Ifanc is an important campaign for the Welsh Blood Service as we embark on a bid to encourage more young people to begin their blood donation journeys and save lives.”
For more information, visit Give Blood Wales’ website or email [email protected].