See B Positive perform Rise Up and join our lifesaving donors

Watch Britain’s Got Talent this Saturday at 8pm on ITV

The B Positive Choir was created by NHS Blood and Transplant to raise awareness of blood donation and we are spreading our message by auditioning on Britain’s Got Talent this weekend.

We are a choir that is made up of people from across England, whose lives are affected by the lifesaving power of blood. Our members include blood donors and blood recipients, people who have blood related medical conditions such as sickle cell, our families, friends and people who work with blood.

We need 700 new blood donors every day, so we are asking people to Rise Up and support the NHS and visit blood.co.uk to register or book your appointment.

Blood donors save lives – join the 6,000 daily donors who keep this country going. We need new donors every day to donate blood to help ensure patients get receive the best possible match.

Find out more about the choir and campaign by visiting the B Positive choir website.

If you can’t register, or get an appointment when you want one, please don’t give up. Patients need blood all year round, so please come back to us later.

Notes to editors

Contact

NHS Blood and Transplant Press Office: Pressoffice@nhsbt.nhs.uk

B Positive - About us

The B Positive Choir was created by NHS Blood and Transplant to raise awareness of blood donation
We are made up of people from across the country whose lives are affected by the lifesaving power of blood
Our members include blood donors and blood recipient, people who have blood related medical conditions such as sickle cell, our families, friends and people who work with blood.

Our Aims

• We need more people to register as new blood donors.
• We need 250,000 new blood donors this year.
• We need people who register as donors to actually go ahead and donate.
• We need to recruit more young donors.
• We need life-saving blood from new donors of all backgrounds, including minority ethnic communities, to provide the closest matches for all blood groups
• We need more young people to come forward. 50% of our donor base is over the age of 45.
• We need more new donors because the demand for special blood groups is going up.
• We need to help black people understand the importance of blood matching, so they become blood donors.
• We need to share information about conditions which require regular blood transfusions like sickle cell disease.
• Every day we need more than 6,000 donations to continue saving lives. Over the last year 900,000 people have given up their time to help patients in need, but we need more new donors.
• We urgently need 40,000 new black donors help people with sickle cell disease.

About sickle cell disease

• Sickle cell is more common in black people and some other minority communities.
• Sickle cell is the most common and fastest growing genetic disorder in the UK.
• To get the best treatment, sickle cell patients need blood which is closely matched.
• This is most likely to come from a donor of the same ethnicity. However, currently only 1% of blood donors in England are black.
• Around 15,000 people in the UK have sickle cell disease.
• Each month hospitals in England request 3-4,000 units of red cells to treat patients with sickle cell.
• Some blood groups such as B positive and Ro are more common in black people.