This week we marked World Blood Donor Day (WBDD). WBDD was established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2005, to promote the voluntary donation of safe blood and to celebrate our invaluable blood donors. In Europe, 25 million of blood donations are produced every year thanks to more than 15 million of unpaid blood donors. Each donation is a precious lifesaving gift and repeat donation is the key to building a safe and sustainable blood supply to contribute to patient care and safety.

Blood donation plays a vital role in modern medicine and transfusion is essential when dealing with trauma, major surgery, cancer patients, or to treat inherited chronic blood diseases such as thalassaemia. Other blood products, such as plasma are a source for producing medicines that are indispensable for the treatment of people with chronic conditions such as primary immunodeficiency, haemophilia and other coagulation disorders, and auto-immune neuropathies.

The Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) would like to thank our voluntary blood donors for their commitments and the role they play in saving lives and would like to take this opportunity to raise the awareness and express our gratitude to our blood, platelet, and plasma donors on behalf of our patients, and to acknowledge their very important contribution to patient care which is always down to their generous donations

Medical Director

Dr A Allameddine, Medical Director, NIBTS