Blood donors put on a festive face to encourage donations

Staff Reporter NEXT Monday, the blood donors association is launching a promotional campaign to coincide with the St Sebastián festival in Palma. La Hermandad de Donantes de Sangre is hoping to collect 40 bags a day, equivalent to 18 litres which was the amount collected last year. In what will be the third consecutive year for this blood donation scheme, the association's president, Llorenc Vallori presented the campaign yesterday in Palma, supported by the city Mayor, Catalina Cirer. A mobile unit will enable donors to give blood at various points around the capital. Those wishing to donate will find the blood bank ”bus” in plaza Juan Carlos on Monday, 12 January, Friday 16 and Saturday 17; in Avenida Jaime III on Tuesday, 13 and Thursday 15; and in the Plaza del Mercado on Wednesday, 14 January. The mobile unit will be open to donors from 10.30am to 1.30pm on these days and during the afternoon from 5-8.30pm. Vallori gave prominence to the importance of this campaign, which, coinciding as it does with the St Sebastian festival and targetting much frequented areas of the city, has managed to collect on previous occasions some 20 percent more blood than as a result of other combined promotional activities. The collections made by the Palma mobile unit will be complemented by other promotions which will be made in smaller towns on the island during the week leading up to 20 January, the day of the patron saint of the capital. From Monday 12th to Tuesday, 20th January, the association will be active in Binissalem, Sant Joan, Andratx, Campanet, Lloseta and Inca, amongst other areas. The mayor also highlighted the conscience-raising importance of this activity which aims to “bring the means to give blood” closer to home”. Cirer, after explaining that the City Council has organised the necessary parking permission for the mobile unit throughout the city, also offered local government co-operation with the organisation “throughout the year”.