SINGAPORE — Ms Abigail Chen is terrified of injections but that has not stopped the 26-year-old auditor from donating 12,150ml of blood in the past decade. Currently based in Sydney, Ms Chen donates a 450ml packet of blood whenever she returns home for a break every three months. Whole blood donors can give blood up to four times yearly.

“Until now, I still look away during the process of blood donation, but if a little pain on the arm can save three lives each time, I will gladly do it,” she said.

Like Ms Chen, 23-year-old pastry cook Daryl Bay (picture) has been a regular blood donor since he was 16 years old. When he was 15, he witnessed how his severely-ill late grandfather benefited from donated platelets. “The transfusion prolonged my grandpa’s life. It was then that I realised that patients who are suffering won’t even have a chance to live without blood donations,” said Mr Bay, who has undergone 24 blood donations and three platelet donations.

Ms Chen and Mr Bay were among some 1,473 champion blood donors recognised for their contributions at the 10th anniversary of World Blood Donor Day on Saturday.

The number of youth donors aged 25 and below under the National Blood Programme rose to 22,000 last year, from 20,000 in 2006. This group accounted for 32 per cent of the total number of local blood donors last year.

Mr Benjamin Jeyaraj William, Secretary-General of the Singapore Red Cross (SRC), said the aim was to increase that number to 35 per cent.

About 400 units of donated blood, which is processed into red cells, platelets and plasma within six hours of donation, are needed daily by patients here. They include those suffering from serious conditions like cancer, leukaemia and bleeding disorders.

Blood is routinely needed to sustain the lives of certain groups of patients. According to Dr Esmeralda Teo Chi Yuan, a Registrar at Singapore General Hospital’s Department of Haematology, patients with blood disorders require donated blood on a regular basis. Blood count of cancer patients on chemotherapy can drop daily and has to be topped up. Donated blood is also used in emergencies and surgical procedures involving massive blood loss.

The daily national blood stock is monitored by the SRC and the Health Sciences Authority’s Blood Services Group. Bloodstock level is usually kept at six days, but it tends to fall during festive seasons, long public holiday periods and when there are high demands for specific blood types by hospitals, said Mr William.

To reach out to more potential youth donors, the SRC has launched a microsite Red Cross Connection featuring real-time updates on the blood bank’s blood stock requirements for specific blood types, as well as information on coming blood drives and locations.

Mr William said a smartphone application, which will send notifications to users to alert them to shortages in their blood type, is also in the pipeline.