The blood donation marathon of Catalonia starts next Saturday with the aim of achieve 10,000 donations and recover reserves that are very low, and with the ambition also to engage the youth to take over from regular donors who, due to age or illness, can no longer participate.
In a telematic act, the mayors of Barcelona, Ada Colau; Girona, Marta Madrenas; Lleida, Miquel Pueyo, and Tarragona, Pau Ricomà, have presented the marathon, organized by the Blood and Tissue Bank (BST) between January 8 and 15.
‘Donating blood is giving life’, Colau stressed, who explained that, in addition to the usual marathon donation points -the main hospitals-, on this occasion the central headquarters of the University of Barcelona will be added.
Low reserves
During the week of the marathon, the organizers hope to recover the reserves, which are very low after christmas holidays and at a time of record of contagions of the covid.
“Our reserve situation is sincerely low”, lamented the director of the BST, Francesc Gòdia, who has indicated that, to the factor of vacations that always reduces donations, this year the frequent cancellations of previous appointments porque donors they test positive for covid or are close contact, and then they must wait a month.
Although the usual security reserves of the BST are 10,000 units, currently it has half, Gòdia has specified.
Although the reserve situation is bad at the moment, in the whole of 2021 – the year in which surgical activity and the demand for blood have recovered – there have been more donations than in 2019, before the pandemic, specifically 11,000 plus.
Generational relief
In addition to trace the situation of the reserves, the BST pursues another objective: to ensure the generational replacement of regular donors who, due to age or illness, stop donating (about 20,000 people a year).
“We want to incorporate more young people into the donor population,” said Gòdia, who stressed that the goal of the marathon is to achieve 10,000 donations in total and that 2,000 of these are from first donors.
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In this sense, the BST has launched a campaign that encourages young people to be part of the “GeneraciónD (donor generation)”, which does not have a specific age but shares the commitment to solidarity and altruism, has explained
‘Influencers’ like Long Li Xue, Berta Aroca or Rustem ya have been encouraged to be part of GeneraciónD and they will donate blood for the first time in this marathon, to encourage other young people to do the same.
Reference-www.elperiodico.com