For Black History Month, we hosted events in association with the NHS Blood and Transplant team entitled ‘Know Your Blood Type’ to raise awareness for students of black heritage to donate blood.
October is Queen Mary Students’ Union’s Black History Month, and this year it was jam-packed with a celebration of black culture and exploring history. We saw events like games nights, zine making and a black-owned business fair! We even hosted a couple of events in association with the NHS Blood and Transplant team entitled ‘Know Your Blood Type’ to raise awareness for students of black heritage to donate blood.
Did you know if you are in generally good health and between the age of 17 and 65, you can sign up to give blood?
In our ‘Know Your Blood Type’ events, students could sign up to become a blood donor or find out more information. Students even had the opportunity to partake in a 5-minute process to find out what blood type they have, what this means, and what it is used for!
In total across both our Mile End and Whitechapel campuses, we had over 150 conversations about blood donation and what different types of blood mean. There were over 90 students from black heritage and ethnic minorities engaged with the events, adding up to our overall engagement rates with Black History Month. Plus, we had over 120 new donor registrations and 100 appointments book to donate blood!
Every blood donation can save either 3 adults or 6 babies lives. This means that if everyone who booked an appointment continues to donate, 291 adults or 582 babies could be saved!
This is a huge achievement by all who engaged with ‘Know Your Blood Type’, so thank you to everyone who got involved with these events, and Black History Month in general!