World Blood Donor Day 2024: Thank you, blood donors!

Today the world commemorates the 20^th World Blood Donor Day under the motto “20 years of celebrating giving: Thank you, blood donors!”. The European Blood Alliance (EBA), representing public and not-for-profit blood establishments in 25 countries, particularly thanks the more than 15 million donors in Europe whose voluntary unpaid blood donations save lives and brings communities together.

After a first successful campaign in 2004, World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) was officially designated as an annual event by the World Health Assembly in 2005 allowing us to celebrate the role every single person can play by giving blood, platelets, or plasma. Each donation is a precious lifesaving gift and repeat donation is the key to building a safe and sustainable blood supply.

Over the last 20 years, the WBDD campaigns have given us the opportunity to thank blood donors, recruit new ones, and raise attention to important aspects such as the role of blood in preventing maternal deaths (2014), the importance of donating blood regularly (2017) or the much-needed focus on increasing plasma donations (2023).

Beyond the messages, these last 20 years of campaigning are also a testimony to how different organisations have come together to celebrate blood donation and to cooperate beyond it. The WBDD is a symbol of how stakeholders find new ways to collaborate and make progress on all fields linked to transfusion medicine: from continuing to improve donor safety and well-being, to ensuring sufficiency of blood and blood products, or continuing to raise quality and safety standards to ensure patient safety.

EBA wishes to acknowledge the work of international institutions like the World Health Organisation but also of small, local organisations representing donors and patients who are fundamental to our ecosystem and must be supported accordingly.

Peter O’Leary, Executive Director of EBA notes:

“Today is an opportunity to thank our wonderful donors. We celebrate their role in saving lives and we celebrate the progress we are making in Europe in acknowledging their role, the latest example being the recently agreed EU SoHO Regulation which significantly reinforces donor safety standards.”

Nearly 120 million units of blood are donated globally every year, with 25 million units transfused in Europe alone.

EBA once again expresses its gratitude to our donors, whether blood, platelet, plasma, or all three, and acknowledges that blood establishments’ very effective contribution to patient care is down to their selfless, generous donation.