One thousand donors donated 882 units of blood at a humanitarian blood donation campaign, entitled the Thang Long Red Blood Drop, held on April 11 in Hanoi.

The event was held by the Hanoi Voluntary Blood Donation Steering Committee (VBDSC) on the occasion of Blood Donation Day on April 7.

“We expect to represent one thousand blood donors at the campaign, with an aim to celebrate the 1,000 th anniversary of Thang Long-Hanoi,” said Deputy Chairman of Hanoi’s People Committee Dao Van Binh at the event.

“Blood shortages have happened frequently in summer and over the Tet holidays,” said Binh.

The campaign aims to improve Hanoians’ awareness of blood donation drives and encourage communities to be involved in the movement.

“The amount of blood collected from donors met just 40 percent of the city’s demand, because the city has many big hospitals with a large number of patients,” said the director of the National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusions, Nguyen Anh Tri. Last year, the city collected nearly 62,000 units of blood from donors, accounting for 88 percent of the target.

In 2010, 29 districts in the city have set a goal to collect 140,000 blood units from 182,000 donors, which would completely solve blood shortages during summer vacations and Tet./.