Regional donor manager Geraldine Parker said there was a specific need for more people to give blood in Bournemouth.“We have had a phenomenal response – we have already signed up more than 100 people and around 30 per cent of them are from the 17 to 24 year-old age group which is important as we need new blood – they are the blood donors of the future.”
John Elliot, 56, who has had 30 pints of blood in the past 18 months since he was diagnosed with leukaemia in March 2011, and is now in remission, was part of the team.
He said: “I was a blood donor off and on for about 20 years which makes me feel a bit better about having had so many blood transfusions, but I still want to help raise awareness.”
Gerwyn Davies, 61, from Bournemouth who has donated 82 pints in the past 39 years, said: “I was 23 when my mother told me we were both going to sign up as blood donors. I hated injections at the time, but my mother wasn’t the sort of person you would argue with so I went along and gritted my teeth and found that it wasn’t too bad at all.
“When my mother finally had to stop donating because of the new age limit, she was very upset, so I promised I would continue to give blood for as long as I could.”
The next blood donation session will be at the United Reformed Church in Bournemouth on June 21. For more information call 0300 123 23 23 or visit blood.co.uk
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