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Canada celebrated its first National Blood Donor Week from 8-14 June. The week, culminated on June 14 to coincide with World Blood Donor Day, which was an opportunity to thank volunteer donors for their selfless life-saving act, calling upon others to join them, and remind Canadians of the challenges of managing the country's blood supply, particularly during the summer months.
This year's theme, "Many Happy Returns", was chosen to highlight the importance of committed, lifelong donors, and the many opportunities to save lives through blood donation in the course of a year.

Canadian blood donors are the most generous in the world, according to Ian Mumford, Chief Operating Officer of Canadian Blood Services. In comparison to benchmarking partner organizations in the US, UK, Australia and some European countries, Canadian donors topped the list with an average donation rate of 2.18 times a year. However there was still room to grow. Of the 400,000 active donors in Canada, nearly 275,000 donated once or twice last year. Blood donors were eligible to give every 56 days, which could mean six to seven times a year. That distinction belongs to a select group of 14,500 Canadians last year.

Facing a 2% increase demand for blood this year, which translated into 17,000 units of blood, Canadian Blood Services was counting on attracting 90,000 new donors to the cause, and asking its occasional donors to consider returning at least one more time during the year.

According to Mumford it was important to retain the existing customers than attract new ones. He also said that there was a need for more committed donors to lighten the load on the existing donors. However, even if a small percentage of our once-a-year or twice-a-year donors gave just one more time, it would have a tremendous impact on meeting patient needs now and into the future.

The challenge of recruiting blood donors is heightened during the summer months when high school and university clinics are not in session, and when Canadians deviate from their routines and blood donation is not top priority. From June to August this year, it is expected that hospital patients would require the donations from 219,000 donors.

World Blood Donor Day falls within National Blood Donor Week on June 14th - the birth date of Karl Landsteiner, a pioneer of transfusion medicine. Every year the World Health Organization selects a country to host international celebrations. Last year Canada had that honour and hosted the world stage with ceremonies in Ottawa. This year the United Arab Emirates hosted the world with the theme "many happy returns." Blood centres everywhere face challenges in recruiting and retaining blood donors.

National Blood Donor Week celebrated a new status this year. Last spring, the federal government passed a bill making the week "official." The bill was initially brought forward in the Senate in 2005 by Liberal Senator Terry Mercer and co-sponsored Conservative Senator Ethel Cochrane (Newfoundland and Labrador). Navdeep Bains, MP (Mississauga-Brampton South) sponsored the Senate Bill in the House of Commons where all parties supported it. Senators Mercer & Cochrane thanked everyone involved with spreading the word about the importance of blood donation. However, there was the need for new volunteers to carry on this tradition. They were committed to saving lives together.

• We need 900,000 blood donations this year to meet hospital demand in Canada
• Number of donors required from June to August: 219,000
• We are facing a 2% growth in the number of donations required to meet hospital demand this year • that means over 17,000 additional donations
• We need 90,000 new donors to keep our donor pool robust
• Donors can give every 56 days, or six to seven times a year
• With 41 permanent sites across the country, and 20,000 annual clinics, there are plenty of opportunities to save lives.
• In Canada 185,000 donors gave once last year, 90,000 gave twice
• 14,500 gave six or seven times
• Approximately 1 in 2 Canadians can give blood
• Last year, 1 in 60 did

Canadian Blood Services is a national, not-for-profit charitable organization that manages the blood supply in all provinces and territories outside of Quebec and oversees the country's OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network (formerly the Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry).

Courtesy: Canadian Blood Services