TV4's Blood Donor Drive Far Exceeds Expectations

Photo: TV4

TV4's recent blood donor drive was a huge success in Sweden. The campaign, which was conceived during an internal seminar - was featured during various news broadcasts, including Nyhetsmorgon, Kvällsöppet and Efter tio – with a range of TV4's stars participating and donating blood.

"Sweden's blood banks needed 40,000 new donors to cover its total needs," says Mattias Hägerlund, project manager for the campaign at TV4. "We're really pleased that we brought the need to the attention of the public for a week with different case stories and live reports from around the country."

Sweden's national blood banks received twice as many new registered donors compared with a normal week, and between Monday and Saturday, a total of 10,072 donated blood in Sweden, says Eva Stenstam of the Stockholm region blood bank.

"We've also gotten several hundred phonecalls and mail from people who couldn't come during the week but will come later," says Stenstam. "And applications to the website geblod.nu increased from 230 the week before the drive to 1,200 during the drive week. It's also important to have a long-term perspective. Thanks to the drive, knowledge of blood and donating has increased over the long term, which we're convinced will result in many new donors." 

Some of the TV4 personalities participating included Peter Jihde, Jenny Östergren, David Hellenius, Kristin Kaspersen and Steffo Törnquist, among others.

"It's a positive campaign with an important purpose," says Östergren, program host for Nyhetsmorgon. "One person's initiative can make a difference between life and death."

Mattias Hägerlund gives credit to the whole group working on the drive.

"We were able to carry this out with fairly small resources, thanks to everyone's motivation and ambition, and the project group has done a huge amount of work," says Hägerlund. "And it feels great."