Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) is helping people to become lifesavers by providing Wokingham Fire Station as a venue for NHS Blood and Transplant blood donation sessions.
Wokingham Fire Station will be holding another one of their scheduled sessions on Friday 30 September from 11.30am until 2.30pm and then from 3.45pm until 7pm.
They have already provided the fire station as a venue for two sessions which were a huge success with lots of members of the public turning up to donate blood. A total of 230 pints were collected over the first two sessions which exceeded our target of 100 pints per session.
Further sessions have been scheduled at Wokingham Fire Station on: 5 December 2016, 2 February 2017, 3 April 2017 and 15 June 2017. RBFRS is currently working with the NHS Blood and Transplant service to open up more fire stations as blood donation venues on selected dates in 2017.
The fire station’s appliance bay will be temporarily adapted while the sessions take place, with health screening areas and a number of beds in place so that NHS staff can take the blood donations. The fire engine will be parked on a different part of the site during the sessions but the crew will still be available to attend incidents.
Station Manager, Luke Coleman, who has been working with the NHS Blood and Transplant service on this project, said: “One of our strategic commitments is to contribute to a broader health, safety and wellbeing agenda, and working with NHS Blood and Transplant on this initiative is just one of the many ways we are doing so.
“It has been really great to work alongside the NHS on this project and be able to offer the station as a venue, supporting the great work they do. Giving people the opportunity to help save lives has gone down really well in Wokingham and we hope this next session will be as popular as the others.”
New and existing donors are welcome to come along to the sessions. There will be a small number of walk in appointments but to avoid disappointment we encourage people to make an appointment, either on the website (www.blood.co.uk) or call 0300 123 23 23.