Strong response to blood appeal

The Blood Bank’s donation van has been at HB Grandi’s Nordurgardur location today to receive donations and to find new blood donors. According to Blood Bank representative Jórunn Frímannsdóttir, the collection has gone well and the response from the staff of HB Grandi and other companies in the area has been very good, reports www.megafishnet.com with reference to the company.

This is the second time the Blood Bank has come to HB Grandi’s location to take donations and according to the CEO’s PA Kristín Helga Waage Knútsdóttir, the company’s management would like this to become a regular event. CEO Vilhjálmur Vilhjálmsson is an active blood donor and said he had given blood 69th times.

‘It’s certainly convenient for me to be able to go to the Blood Bank van here at Nordurgardur to give blood. That saves me a trip to the Blood Bank itself, and this is the bank that provides higher interest than any other in the form of saving people’s lives,’ he said.

Jórunn Frímannsdóttir said that the Blood Bank’s van is in constant use all year round apart from six weeks during staff and bank holidays.

‘We are well stocked with blood at the moment, but we only need one serious incident to hit our reserves heavily. We collect donations all year round and try to go to those parts of the country the van can get to. We can’t get to the Eastfjords or all the way around the Westfjords due to the distances involved and the road conditions, and we don’t dare use the ferry to take it to the Westmann Islands. But we are going there by air next week to collect donations,’ Jórunn Frímannsdóttir said, adding that there are between 8000 and 9000 active blood donors in Iceland.

‘We need 2000 new blood donors every year and we hope that a few new ones will join and become regulars after our visit to HB Grandi today,’ she said.