The Red Cross continuously relies on the generosity of volunteer blood donors to help patients in need: cancer patients, trauma victims, heart and other surgery patients, newborn babies and birthing mothers. The need for blood is constant, but there simply aren’t enough new blood donors being added to the ranks to help those in need.
In fact, the problem is an alarming one:
• Every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood.
• Only three percent of people in the U.S. give blood in each year.
• Engagement from new blood donors has declined steadily for most of the past decade.
New blood donors giving blood the idea behind the innovative Missing Types campaign is that we might not realize how vital certain letters are until they’re gone. A, B and O are our blood types, and when not, enough people donate, A’s, B’s and O’s may be missing from hospital shelves. This trend isn’t just a U.S. issue, it’s global. The Missing Type campaign was born in 2016 in the U.K. to help address the dropping number of new blood donors, and the movement has grown each year since. This year, there are already 18 countries planning to be part of the movement during the same time. The Red Cross is asking for your help to fill the missing blood types by inspiring 370,000 new blood donors across the U.S. to act this summer. Together, we can reverse the trend before it’s too late for patients in need.
Please support the #MissingType campaign by donating blood that week or any time before September 1st. Make an appointment here and encourage your friends and family to support! Please spread the news and give blood.
Note: Copied from American Red Cross. Please refer to the link below if you need any further information.
