Canada Calls for More Blood Donations

Canadian Blood Services has made a desperate call to all health and able-bodied Canadian to donate blood to avert the looming potential shortage in its national reserves.

The non-profit organisation came out with the plea in light of the coming summer months where it claimed it experiences the most decline in appointments being filled.

Veronica Magee, a spokeswoman for the group, explained the period from mid-July to the end of August usually poses as "the biggest challenge of the year" because it is also during this period that the regular donors are not donating because they are out travelling.

"People are away on vacation and they're not really thinking about donating; it's not top of mind to them," Renee Horton, provincial spokeswoman for the Canadian Red Cross, was quoted by the Chronicle Herald.

But Ms Magee pointed out blood donation is not just the regular donor's business.

"We definitely need people to take action so that we can build up our national reserves at times like this," she said, noting it can take as much as 50 blood donors to help a lone car crash victim at any single time.

"It takes so many more people to help save the life of one person," Ms Magee said.

And ironically, it is during the summer months, when there are less donors, that Canada needs more of them because of more road accidents, noting a higher demand for blood.

"So we have to make sure that we are getting as much blood ... (and) the inventory is stable, and that in September it hasn't been used up. We want to ensure in September we have enough going into the fall months," Ms Horton said.

The group specifically needs more than 50,000 donations between now and Labour Day to meet constant demand from hospitals as well as keep blood inventories at acceptable levels.

Canadian Blood Services operates 42 permanent collection sites and more than 20,000 donor clinics across the country, with the exception of Quebec.

To book an appointment to donate, call 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888-236-6283) or go to www.blood.ca