A ceremony to honour blood donors across the country was held on June 14 in Hanoi in response to the World Blood Donor Day.

Donors were represented by Pham Thanh Liem, 31, from the southern province of Tay Ninh, among a crowd of 100 others, typical of those who volunteered nation-wide. Liem had donated more than 50 times.

Also Le Dinh Duat, 70, from Hanoi, was awarded for mobilising his relatives to donate more than 270 units.

The 10th World Blood Donor Day with the theme "Give a drop of blood, save a life" focused on the value of blood donations in saving unlucky patients.

The National Steering Committee for Voluntary Blood Donor Recruitment Vice Chairman, Nguyen Hai Duong, said the committee expected to receive more attention and support from society for the blood donation programme.

In 2012, the country received more than 900,000 units of blood which met 50 percent of emergency aid and treatment demand. Nearly 88 percent of the blood was from volunteer donors.

The country is striving to get more than 1 million units of blood by the end of this year.-VNA