PEOPLE are often busy around Easter and the school holidays so NHS Blood and Transplant is asking blood donors in Farnham with appointments during March to please keep them to help meet patient needs over the holidays.

Farnham Maltings will be holding a session from 12.45pm to 3.30pm and 4.20pm to 6.45pm, on Monday, March 21.

Six-thousand units of blood are needed by hospitals across England and North Wales every day to treat patients. Blood is used for wide variety of life-saving procedures.

This includes helping to save the life of a new mother during or after childbirth or treating patients with blood disorders, such as sickle cell anaemia and Thalassaemia, which require regular transfusions.

Red cells last for only 35 days while the shelf life of platelets, a clotting factor used to help treat patients with leukaemia and cancer, is even shorter at just seven days.

Michelle Laserna, senior marketing co-ordinator at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “We rely on our loyal donors in Farnham to help us make sure that vital supplies of blood are available for patients when they need it.

“If you have an appointment in March, please keep it, especially if your blood group is O- negative or A- negative. If you find you can’t please let us know as soon as possible, so we can make the appointment available to someone else.

“We also welcome new donors in the Farnham area and if you’ve never given blood before, now is a good time to start. It’s easy to sign up online and book an appointment.”

Those wishing to donate blood for the first time need to be aged between 17 and 66, and will need to register, either online at www.blood.co.uk or by calling the 24-hour donor helpline on 0300 123 2323.

Once registered, book an appointment at the nearest blood donor session and then come along and make the first donation.

It is also easy for donors to book appointments through mobile apps for Windows, Android and Apple devices. To download the app, search ‘NHSGiveBlood’ in the app store.