I posted this on the old forum but I think it is worth repeating on the new site for reference, just to remind folk what it's all about. Sorry to those who have read it before, for those who have not, sign up and help change the statistic.
4% of the population currently donate blood, not a very inspirational figure by any means. I was wondering what that actually meant in a place like Barlick. So I set about trying to find out.
Searching for demographic details for Barlick on Google took me to the "Pendle District Profile 2011" on the council website which is a very interesting document that has the low down on all sorts of statistics for Pendle. Some of the information is based on the 2001 census so it may not be absolutely 100% accurate but near enough for an idea of what I wanted to know.
I was interested in the number of people who are eligible to donate blood in Barlick against the number who actually do.
According to the report, the population of Barlick (Coates and Craven wards) is 11,100.
61% are aged 20 -64. Eligability age for donation is 17 - 65 so I have bumped this figure up to 63% who may be eligible giving a total of 6993 potential donors.
Of course not all of the 6993 will be able to donate for various medical and other reasons but even if we said that only half of those eligible could actually donate it would still be nearly 3,500 who could.
The quoted 4% is based on anyone eligible in the age range so if we apply this to the Barlick population who are in range it actually means that about 280 people donate. From conversations with the staff at donor sessions, I think this is somewhere near what they get on a very good day.
On the other side of the coin and allowing for those who cannot donate for whatever reason it means that 280 do and 3220 eligible healthy people do not. A pretty sad statistic really.
Come on Barlickers, lets buck the trend, new donors book your appointment and post on here to say you are going to do something amazing.