Every minute of every day, someone in Canada needs blood. That someone could be a loved one, a friend, a co-worker – or even you. In Canada, roughly 137,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every year. We all know that cancer patients often need blood or blood products to survive their treatments. The number of transplants has increased steadily from 16 per one million Canadians in 1981 to 59 per one million Canadians in 2000. This includes kidney, liver, pancreas, heart, lung and bowel transplants – all of which are lengthy procedures requiring significant amounts of blood. The number of total hip replacements done in Canada during the same period increased by just under 20 per cent. As you can see, the need for blood and blood products is rapidly rising—and we need to increase the percentage of eligible Canadians who donate blood.

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