Fill in the gaps to help boost blood donations

Posted 18th August 2016

We’ve joined Coronation Street, Cadbury’s and The Sydney Opera House in a campaign to encourage more first time blood donors.

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust has temporarily become The Cl tter ridge C ncer Centre NHS F und ti n Trust, to highlight the dwindling numbers of donors.

The letters A, B and O, that are used to identify the main blood types, are disappearing from signs, logos and even TV programmes and we’ve joined in.

The public are being asked to: “Help fill in the gaps.”

It's an awareness campaign spearheaded by the NHS which first ran last year and resulted in more than 30,000 donating blood.

Now it has gone international.

The campaign comes as The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre gets ready to welcome the arrival of the Royal Liverpool's blood cancer team in April 2017.

Unlike most cities, blood cancer services in Liverpool are completely separate from those for solid tumours. While The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre provides services for all other types of cancer, blood cancer care is currently split between Royal Liverpool University Hospital and Aintree University Hospital.

The new agreement will create a single blood cancer service across Liverpool, together with care for people with other types of cancer, and all managed by The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre.

The blood cancer services currently provided in the Royal Liverpool University Hospital will move into The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre’s new 11-floor hospital next door, which is due to open in 2019.