Blood-giving marathon calls for over 10,000 donations after Christmas

The Catalan Blood and Tissue Bank expects to get more than 10,000 blood donations in a week-long marathon campaign that will start on Friday 11. The organization run by the Catalan Health Department seeks to exceed last year's donations, when almost 9,400 people participated in the 2018 Blood Marathon Campaign. Several events in cities and hospitals will be held across Catalonia over the coming week aimed at boosting reserves, which are currently very low levels after Christmas.

The Blood Bank says that 10,000 donations would provide medical centers with blood for around 10 days in a row, instead of the current seven days. The main Catalan hospitals will be involved, and the public can make a reservation to donate blood at the time and place of their choosing on the website.

Social media campaign

The 2019 Blood Marathon Campaign aims to help achieve its aims by more actively using social media. Hence, this year it is calling on the public to encourage their friends to give blood using the hashtag #sangfluencer (the Catalan translation of #bloodfluencer), and by sending private messages by WhatsApp.

The director of the Catalan Blood and Tissue Bank in Girona, Anna Millán, explained that this communication strategy has already been used by “several international organizations” in the UK and the Netherlands to increase blood donations.