The willingness to donate blood has decreased significantly due to the corona pandemic. On the occasion of the World Blood Donation Day, the footballers from 1. FC Frankfurt (Oder) ask for the needle and lure the fans with season tickets.
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For World Blood Donor Day on Monday, the 1. FC Frankfurt athletes set a good example. Under the motto “It’s just a small spade that can save up to three lives”, the team donates in the afternoon in the blood and plasma center of Frankfurt’s Oderturm. As the largest football club in the region, the members want to make a contribution to raising public awareness of the issue of blood and plasma donation [www.fcfrankfurt.de].
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Tony Schnürer is also there. He is the trainer of the 2nd Frankfurt men’s team, but works full-time as a nurse in the Markendorf hospital. His last donation was seven years ago. With the action on Monday he would like to be active again now. “I think donation is a must and I’ll see who needs the blood.”
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Supporters of the club who also donate blood will be rewarded with season tickets for the new football season of 1. FC Frankfurt. A few more have already come because of that. Nine athletes had their pins set by the football club itself – including coach Thorsten Beck and captain Erik Huwe. According to the club’s vice-president André Wolf, sport and medicine belong together. He says pragmatically: “Maybe one day you will need blood yourself.”
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Nationwide, around 15,000 blood donations are required every day to meet the demand. Statistically speaking, every person needs a blood supply or medicines made from it once in their life, explains Anne-Kathrin Landesfeind from the Haema Blood Donation Service. For them, the footballers’ campaign is all the more important because the donations have noticeably decreased during the corona pandemic. In some regions of Germany there were already bottlenecks in the supply of blood products.
In Frankfurt (Oder), for example, there is currently a lack of numerous students who otherwise regularly donated blood and blood plasma. “Many people were at home, but often because of childcare,” says Anne-Kathrin Landesfeind. “According to the tenor of our donors, there was less time on the side.” At the same time, however, the need for blood is increasing, as many operations that have been postponed due to the pandemic are now being rescheduled.
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The kicker campaign should continue beyond the day of the campaign. Overall, the association calls on its supporters to donate for two months.
Broadcast: Antenne Brandenburg, June 14th, 2021, 4:40 p.m.
With material from Marie Stumpf
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