Turkish Red Crescent celebrates World Voluntary Blood Donor Day on June 14 by thanking all blood donors for the lives they save. The Red Crescent invites every healthy individual between the ages of 18-65 to become a blood donor with its blood donation campaign under the slogan ‘We are deeply connected to each other’.
World Blood Donor Day is celebrated for the 20th time this year to raise awareness about the need for safe blood and blood products and to thank blood donors who voluntarily save lives. This special day, which is celebrated around the world on June 14 every year in reference to the birthday of Nobel Laureate Karl Landsteiner, who invented the A-B-0 blood type system, is of particular importance for Turkish Red Crescent, which works to meet Turkey’s entire blood need from voluntary donors.
Carrying out blood donation activities with 18 Regional Blood Centers, 69 Blood Donation Centers, more than 300 mobile and fixed teams across the country within the framework of the blood services task assigned by the Ministry of Health, Turkish Red Crescent met 87 percent of Turkey’s blood need in 2023. In 2024, the number of regular blood donors of the Red Crescent, which reached 1.2 million units of blood donation as of June 10, exceeded 829 thousand.
“8500 UNITS OF BLOOD DONATIONS ARE NEEDED DAILY”
Prof. Dr. Fatma Meriç Yılmaz, President of the Turkish Red Crescent, which meets the blood and blood component needs of approximately 1,200 hospitals every day, said: “When there is a need for blood, especially in emergencies, blood donations must be collected, tested, prepared and ready to be shipped to hospitals. We have a daily target of 8,500 units of blood donations to maintain a stock level sufficient to meet the hospitals’ need for blood and blood components in all groups by one hundred percent for a week. The continuity of this is possible with the increase in the number of our regular blood donors. Let’s not forget that one unit of blood saves three lives. That’s why we say ‘We are deeply connected to each other’ and invite our citizens to become regular blood donors.”
5,992 PATIENTS FOUND HEALING WITH STEM CELL DONATION
The Turkish Red Crescent has been actively involved in the TurkStem Project since 2013 for patients waiting for stem cell treatment. There are approximately 1.1 million active stem cell donors in the Turkök project, which is as vital as blood. To date, 5,922 transplants from the stem cell donor pool have contributed to the healing of patients.
30 MINUTES IS ENOUGH FOR BLOOD DONATION
On the occasion of World Blood Donor Day, Turkish Red Crescent thanks all volunteer blood donors who save lives and calls on all healthy individuals between the ages of 18-65 to become regular blood donors. Citizens who want to donate blood can join the blood friends within 30 minutes by going to the nearest Red Crescent Blood Donation point, filling out a form and donating blood under the control of a doctor. Men can donate blood every 3 months and women every 4 months.
