Celebrities are used to the VIP treatment, but how often do the public get a chance to become a `Very Important Person’ and make a difference in their local community?
The VIP Appeal is a new campaign by the National Blood Service (NBS) in conjunction with the ACLT to encourage Black African, Black Caribbean and South Asian communities to give blood and help meet the need for rare blood types within ethnic minority communities.
Statistics show that less than three per cent of the total number of donors are from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Everyday, people from African and Caribbean communities require blood transfusions. One such patient whose life has been transformed by blood donation is Anne Welsh. Anne suffers from Sickle Cell Anaemia, and thanks to regular blood transfusions this West Londoner of African background was able to complete an impressive array of professional qualifications and pursue a high-flying career as an investment banker.
Lynda Hamlyn, Chief Executive of NHS Blood and Transplant said, “We are encouraging people from the widest communities to come forward to ensure that whenever someone is in need of blood or bone marrow, there is a matching type available. Some blood types are more common within ethnic communities and with bone marrow; you are much more likely to find a match from your own ethnic group.
There are also health conditions like Sickle Cell Anaemia and Thalassaemia Major which are prevalent within ethnic communities that need constant supplies of blood. All of these factors show just how important it is for people from all communities to come forward and give blood.” So, to become a Very Important Person and do something amazing, visit www.blood.co.uk/vip and register there as a blood donor.
For more information visit www.blood.co.uk/vip or call 0300 123 2323 quoting reference A05.
LATEST ACLT NEWS ON VIP APPEAL
Here are a few recent VIP general updates for you:
On Sunday 9th August the ACLT attended the ‘Jerk Cookout’ at Hornimans Park in Forest Hill, South London. We hosted the NBS ‘VIP Appeal’. We managed to sign up 293 members of the 20,000 strong crowd on a very productive but madly busy day to become regular blood donors.
On Saturday 15th August the ACLT attended the ‘Eddie Kadi’ comedy night at the O2 Indigo Arena. We hosted the NBS ‘VIP Appeal’. Orin went on stage at the interval and managed to shake up the audience into signing up as blood donors. In total we managed to sign up 453 members of the 2,000 strong audience to become blood donors.
If you have not registered to become a regular blood donor and would like to do so please consider registering at the next ‘Daniel De-Gale Blood Donation Day’s’ which will take place week beginning Monday 5th October to Friday 9th October in venues throughout London, Birmingham and Bristol. Further information about these dates, venues and times will follow shortly.
So far in 2009 the ACLT has signed up 2,949 people to become new regular blood donors on behalf of the National Blood Service (NBS) ‘VIP Appeal’.
Our hope is that the NBS will ensure that these people do go along to a donation session and begin the process of regularly giving a unit of blood to help save lives.
The above 2009 registered donors via the ‘VIP Appeals’ does not include the blood donors we are also recruiting at our Bone Marrow recruitment clinics. That’s an additional 883 people we have signed up as blood donors since the beginning of 2009. On paper the numbers are significant. Our hope is that a good percentage of these people do actually go on to donate blood on a regular basis.
GENERAL INFORMATION
• The National Blood Service is a part of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), a Special Health Authority within the NHS responsible for managing the National Blood Service, Bio Products Laboratory, and UK Transplant. NHSBT is responsible for optimising the supply of blood, organs, plasma and tissues and raising the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of blood and transplant services.
• You may be able to give to blood if you are aged between 17-65, weigh over 7st 12lb (50kg) and are in good health. There is no upper age limit for blood donation if you have donated over the last two years.
• Blood groups vary by ethnicity; blood group B is more common amongst black and Asian groups.
• The NBS arranges over 100 donation sessions every day across England and north Wales.
• The whole process from arriving at the clinic to leaving takes on average less than an hour and you can give blood up to three times a year.
• Each donation can save more than one life.
• There are around 285,000 registered potential bone marrow donors on the British Bone Marrow Registry, only three per cent are from ethnic minority communities.
