Red Deer’s Sirens for Life campaign for 2013 has come to an end and although donations fell short the Canadian Blood Services are still pleased with the results.

Sirens for Life is a partnership between the City of Red Deer Emergency Services and the local RCMP to see how many blood donations they can bring in during the month of January.

This year’s goal was to bring in 304 blood donations. The 2013 campaign ended last Thursday and 167 blood donations had been collected – 80 of those came from Emergency Services and the RCMP and the remaining 87 units came from the community.

This is the 11th year that the Sirens For Life campaign has been running. Since its start in 2003 it has helped bring in over 82,000 blood donations across the province. Each donation can save up to three lives.

In total, more than 500 local hospital patients were positively impacted throughout this challenge.

“We did receive tremendous support from the City of Red Deer Emergency Services and the RCMP,” said Tanya Paul, community development coordinator for Canadian Blood Services. “Ultimately we are really happy and it is the local hospital patients who truly benefit from each and every unit that was brought in. We are really grateful for that.”

Canadian Blood Services reminds Red Deer residents to continue donating blood for hospital patients in need.

“The need for blood is always constant. That is why we need people to step up and donate whenever they can,” said Paul.

Every minute of every day, someone in Canada needs blood. Much of the blood that is transfused every year is done under emergency or trauma situations. In Canada, hundreds of thousands of people each year receive blood components or blood products following accidents, during surgery, burn therapy, hemophilia, cancer treatments and other blood-related diseases.

Each month the Red Deer area needs between 900-1,000 units of blood. The average cancer patient in Red Deer will need five units of blood per week. Leukemia patients require up to eight units per week.

For more information or to book an appointment to donate blood call 1-888-236-6283 or visit www.blood.ca.

treid@reddeerexpress.com