Canadian Blood Services calls for new donors ahead of holiday season

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — With the holiday season approaching, the Canadian Blood Services is worried about running low on blood and hoping more people will decide to donate.

David Patterson, director of donor relations, says they’ve been heavily relying on regular donors since the pandemic, so they’re hoping to recruit some new ones.

“One of the things about COVID is that as people have been busy with their own lives, we’ve actually been relying on most of our existing donor base, and so we’ve fallen short in our goal for new donors. It’s certainly a challenge that we’re working on currently,” he says.

“This time of year and through the spring, we would normally run a lot of events at universities. Well as we all know, there’s not a lot of young people at universities these days. We’re not able to reach them by having a clinic on site.”

While demand for blood went down in hospitals when the pandemic hit because fewer people were going out and surgeries were canceled, full demand is back up.

Patterson says the holiday season is usually a difficult time for the group.

“In the months of Christmas, New Year’s, and even the first week of January, are often a challenging time for us because there are still people out on the roads, elective surgeries are still happening in many cases, so the demand doesn’t drop, but our collections drop,” he says.

“The need as we all know continues every day. Every minute of every day someone in Canada needs blood and today is no different.”

For more information on becoming a donor, click here.

-With files from Tim James