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The following is issued on behalf of the Hospital Authority:
The Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (BTS) held the Annual Donor Award Ceremony today (June 3) to present awards to those who have achieved 25-times donations or above in the past year and the number has reached a new historical record at 2 542.
The Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, officiated at today's ceremony and highly appreciated around 170 000 people donating over 230 000 bags of blood to process into around 600 000 units of products for clinical treatment last year, setting a new high record since the inception of BTS.
She also said,"429 mobile blood drives were organised in educational institutions and some 32 000 bags of blood were collected, accounting for some 14% of the annual total collection last year. Although about half of the blood donors in Hong Kong are aged between 16 and 30, the number of youngsters giving blood in the recent years has been declining. "She urged young people in our society to support and join blood donation to sustain the local blood supply in the long term.
In view of the large number of award recipients this year, the ceremony will be held next Sunday, June 10, to award donors who have achieved 50-times or above blood donations and schools and organisations with outstanding performance in 2011/2012.
BTS strongly hopes that the charitable acts by the awardees will motivate more people in the community to take the first step of blood donation for saving more lives, and together we can live out the theme, "Every Blood Donor is a Hero", of the World Blood Donor Day this year.
To celebrate the World Blood Donor Day cum BTS 60th Anniversary and as an appreciation to blood donors, a "BTS 60th Anniversary Blood Bag Pin" is presented to every donor who gives blood from June 4 to July 2
For any enquiry, please call our hotline at 2710 1234 or visit our website at www.ha.org.hk/rcbts .
Ends/Sunday, June 3, 2012
Issued at HKT 15:00
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