Photo: dantri

Initiated by the Tien Phong (Vanguard) newspaper 10 years ago, the Red Sunday blood donation drive this year involves 31 localities and hopes to collect 35,000 blood units.

As of this Monday, 19 cities and provinces had collected approximately 25,000 blood units. Le Xuan Son is Editor in Chief of the Tien Phong newspaper: “The “Red Sunday” event has involved people of all social strata. Thanks to this movement, the volume of blood donated has been sufficient to meet demand during Tet.”

Last month, when the drive was launched, the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion has a serious shortage of blood type O. Thanks to the campaign which is widely advertised on social networks and mass media, thousands of people with blood type O donated their blood. Vu Thi Huyen is a patient at the Institute: "There has been a serious scarcity of blood type O over the past few months. Many patients’ health was at risk. They are better these days thanks to the blood donated by volunteers. We feel very grateful.”

During and immediately after Tet, hospitals nationwide will need more than 320,000 blood units. The Red Sunday blood donation drive which will continue until the end of this month is answering that need.