Chloe Smith MP to take part in blood donation drive.

Chloe Smith, Member of Parliament for Norwich North, will on Wednesday 2^nd September, be taking part in a local blood donation drive at the Norwich City Football Club to help with the call for urgent blood stocks to be replenished.

 

Chloe is keen to support the ‘Give Blood’ campaign which calls for more people in the East of England to sign up and donate blood. Statistics from ‘Give Blood’ indicate that despite being one of the more densely populated areas within Norfolk and Suffolk, the number of donors within Norwich is third lowest out of fourteen donor areas across Norfolk and Suffolk.

 

People in Norfolk are being urged to donate blood which could save lives after it emerged there has been a 40% drop of new volunteers coming forward across England and North Wales.

 

In June, there was a call to action by the NHS Blood and Transplant organisation after the number of new volunteers registering to donate blood dropped by 40% across England and North Wales. The campaign urged people to give blood which is crucial to saving and improving the lives of patients with cancer, blood disorders, or those undergoing surgery, as well as those who suffer blood-loss following accidents.

In 2014 2,713 people donated blood for the first time in Norfolk last year, which is fewer than five per 1,000 of the estimated number of people between 17 and 70 living in the county.

 

Chloe will be donating blood herself and would like to use the opportunity to encourage others in Norwich to consider giving blood themselves.

 

Chloe comments: "Taking time to donate blood is one thing you can do to help others and I'm doing it for the first time myself. The people of Norwich North can be proud of themselves too because there are more than 2000 regular donors in the constituency.

 

“It is thanks to these donors that the NHS can maintain a healthy supply of blood across the nation. However more can be done, and there is a special need for those with rare blood types to become donors. If you live in Norwich and have A-, B- or O- blood I urge you to get in contact with NHS Blood and Transplant and see if you can become a donor.”

 

 

More information can be found out about how and where you can give blood at: https://my.blood.co.uk/SessionFinder