World Blood Donor Day on June 14

Islamabad

World Blood Donor day will be marked on June 14 across the globe including Pakistan with an aim to raise awareness of the problem and thank donors worldwide.

Safe blood supplies were a scarce commodity - especially in developing countries.

Many events would be held around the world on June 14 to mark World Blood Donor Day.

These include football matches, concerts and mobile blood donation clinics.

In 2011, the World Health Organization (WHO) called upon communities world-wide to symbolically "paint the world red" by colouring, covering or lighting monuments and landmarks.

World Blood Donor Day is a global observance and not a public holiday.

Despite about 92 million yearly blood donations worldwide, safe blood is constantly on high demand, especially in developing countries.

World Blood Donor Day falls on the birthday of Karl Landsteiner (June14, 1868).

He created the ABO blood group system, which is still used today to ensure the safety of blood transfusions.

The theme of this year's World Blood Donor Day is "Blood connects us all".

It focuses on thanking blood donors and highlights the dimension of "sharing" and "connection" between blood donors and patients.

In addition, we have adopted the slogan "Share life, give blood", to draw attention to the roles that voluntary donation systems play in encouraging people to care for one another and promote community cohesion.

The campaign aims to highlight stories of people whose lives have been saved through blood donation, to motivate regular blood donors to continue giving blood, and motivate people in good health who have never given blood to begin doing so, particularly young people.