The University of Brighton Donor Research Team collaborated with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) to organise two ‘What’s your Blood Type’ events.
The events were initially organised by Simonne Weeks (Director of Donor Research) and Lois Lees (Events and Outreach Supervisor) and then led by Gunnika Jain (Events and Outreach Lead Donor Research), Rebecca Craig (Chief Operations Lead Donor Research) and Ash Ramnawaz (Marketing Coordinator for Business Development and Events at NHSBT).
What is a What’s Your blood type event?
A What’s Your blood type event is a marketing initiative to help encourage people to sign up as a blood donor and book an appointment. A lot of people do not know their blood type and are more encouraged to become a blood donor if they have specific information on how important their blood type is. It is a very simple finger prick test that is done on site, and it takes two minutes for the results. NHS Blood and Transplant run these events all over England and recently we did one in collaboration with the Donor Research Team ant Brighton University Falmer Campus on the 4th and 5th of October.
Ash Ramnawaz said “It was a great success with NHS Blood and Transplant staff speaking to a lot of people to spread awareness on blood donations. We signed up 60 new donors over both days and booked 30 appointment, with the 60 new registered donors we can potentially save up to 180 lives”.
Throughout the events there were numerous conversations about blood donation and a real buzz about why this is such an important thing to do. Many students and staff that are already donors popped by to say hello and were also able to talk to people considering being donors about their experiences and how well looked after they have been.
Gunnika Jain said “The What’s Your Blood Type event was promoted at the 2023 Fresher’s Fair where we asked people to think about registering as blood donors and if they did, as a thanks, could also find out their blood type. They all went through the eligibility criteria if interested and then could also book an appointment for the event. Throughout the day, we had massive engagement from everyone who stopped by to have a conversation. Apart from blood donation, lots of people were interested in organ donation and were interested in registering their choice. It was amazing to see so many people engaging with us and some also shared with us how their recent blood donations went. We booked out almost all slots for the event at the Fresher’s Fair. It became very popular amongst everyone because so many people didn’t know their blood types and they were also happy to sign up as blood donors.”
There were many walk-ins too on the day of the events who were very engaging and had important conversations about blood and organ donation. Lots of people also booked appointments for their blood donation. Many people were surprised to find out that they could donate blood despite being on certain medications or having other conditions. It was humbling to see such a huge turnout for our very first set of What’s Your Blood Type events.
The University of Brighton Vice Chancellor Debra Humphris visited the event to show her support for NHSBT and the Donor Research Team. It was wonderful to have her support and engagement with this event.
Theresa Corkill (Academic Subject Lead for Nursing Sciences, School of Sport and Health Sciences) attended the event to show her support and to have the test. She said “It was an absolute privilege to attend the What’s Your Blood Type event, I am immeasurably proud of how we as a university and in our School contribute and support the Donor Research award winning Team. The What’s Your Blood Type event was of course well managed, and it was great to see students queuing to have their blood tested and consider donation. I had my blood type tested and then whilst discussing donation was able to book a session at the next available date in my hometown, all seamless. My plea to you all reading this, please check to see if you are able to donate as I was told in my 20s I couldn’t but as a menopausal woman that reason no longer applies, and I am excited to be able to contribute to saving lives now 😊”.
Keep an eye out for information on our next event at The University of Brighton; Moulescoomb Campus on Wednesday 21st February 2024. We will be based in Elm House so if you are interested, please do pop down and you can register as a blood donor and find out your blood type!
You can Register to become an blood donor or Register your choice for organ donation using these links.
In addition, if you would like to find out more about the work being done by The Donor Research team to tackle health inequalities and raise awareness about blood and organ donation please go to our blog or view our social media accounts using these links: Instagram: @donorresearch
Twitter: @donorsResearch TikTok: @donorresearch LinkedIn: DR Linkedin