Stanford Blood Center Joins Global Awareness Campaign to Help Recruit New Donors

Media Alert Embargoed to 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, August 16

August 15, 2016
Attention News Desk: Press Release (for immediate release)
MEDIA CONTACT:
Loren Magaña 650-529-5828
lmagana@stanford.edu

STANFORD, Calif.− Every second, three people across the world receive a life-changing blood transfusion. That’s why from August 15-21, Stanford Blood Center (SBC) is joining the international Missing Type Campaign to help raise awareness about the importance of blood donation and to encourage more people to register as donors.

The campaign, first held in the UK, is going global with the help of America’s Blood Centers (ABC). The success of the campaign relies heavily on the support of partner organizations. Some of the partners SBC is working with include Stanford Health Care, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, Bay Area Cancer Connections and Sports Basement.

“Throughout the campaign the letters of the main blood groups, As, Bs and Os, will disappear from images posted on partners’ social media channels,” said Kristin Stankus, social media specialist for SBC. “The goal is not just to raise awareness about blood donation, but to help inspire as many new donors as possible to give blood.”

The idea was based on the insight that people rarely think about their blood type as most don’t even know what type they have, but if that type were to go missing in everyday life, people would start to pay more attention to the problem.

“Thirty-eight percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood,” said Loren Magaña, spokesperson for SBC, however only 5% actually do and we want to help change that.”

The public is invited to participate in this campaign by scheduling an appointment to donate blood at: sbcdonor.org or by calling 888-723-7831.

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Stanford Blood Center was created at the Stanford University School of Medicine in 1978 to meet the complex transfusion needs of Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford, as well as provide tailored blood products and clinical trial services for school researchers.  Today the center provides blood products to 4 local hospitals and is a recognized leader in the field of transfusion medicine. More information is available at stanfordbloodcenter.org.