Over 250 Litres of Blood Donated by Blood Families Over the Year

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In October, the Blood Centre of the Medical Centre launched the blood family project, calling on people with a common goal to help others by giving blood to form their own blood families, because together we can help even more people. Over the year, 58 blood families have been registered, joining 517 people who have made over 550 blood donations.

A blood family is a group or partnership of blood donors who give blood together and turn it into a common project and good deed. You can find members for your blood family among family and friends, from work, school, hobby clubs, sports practice, choir or elsewhere. There is no limit to how many members a blood family can have. Consequently, we have both active 2-member apheresis donor families and blood families that are comprised of nearly whole staffs.

Now that a year has passed, it is time to draw conclusions and thank the most active participants. The top 3 apheresis donor families are: Kõuevennad, Kreimus and Plasma Brothers. The most active blood families with up to five members are: ETMM, Pelikan and Tallink RP. Of the blood families with the largest number of members, we recognise four: AS Tallinna Vesi, KredEx, Abipolitseinikud and Põhja Ringkonnaprokuratuur. The Blood Centre will contact the aforementioned blood families to hand over their awards.

Dr Riin Kullaste, Director of the Medical Centre’s Blood Centre, is happy about the project’s successful launch and commends all blood family donors: “The registration of over 50 blood families over the year is a very good result and the families have made a considerable joint contribution to our blood reserves.”
Riin Kullaste explains why the blood family project was initiated: “We have great experience with people coming to give blood from the same place of work, associations or simply as groups of friends. Those occasions always fill the centre with joy and hustle and bustle, and we have received feedback from people that it is more fun and encouraging to give blood as a group. These experiences prompted us to initiate the blood family project to get more people to come and do good together.” I’m happy that this project turned out to be highly viable.” According to Dr Kullaste, acting as a blood family is also an excellent way to support those who might be afraid to come alone. Dr Kullaste added: “And besides – to share your joy in helping others only makes the feeling grow. People who like one another’s company can find a new way to spend time together more meaningfully.”

In addition to groups of friends and families, the Blood Centre is all for blood families comprising employees from the same institution because this serves as positive marketing for any company and shows the social responsibility of the company. There can be more than one blood family in a single organisation to create some competitiveness.

If you like the idea of giving blood as part of a group, take the following steps:

  • find members for your blood family among family and friends, from work, school, hobby school, etc.;
  • name your blood family; and
  • register your blood family with the Blood Centre by completing the  registration form , sending an e-mail to verekeskus@regionaalhaigla.ee  or calling on 617 3002.
  • Be an active representative of your blood family by visiting the Blood Centre (Ädala 2) and DoonoriFoorum (Narva mnt 5) to give blood and sharing your visit on social media with the hashtag #verekond.

The Blood Centre urges the members of already registered blood families to actively donate blood and notify its employees of their blood family membership.

For more information, visit the website of the Blood Centre at  www.verekeskus.ee/verekond/.