Flinders University has rallied as South Australia’s leading tertiary institution in the successful Red Cross social responsibly program called Red25: United To Save Lives.

Red25 was designed by Red Cross as a more social means of enabling organisations to participate in blood donation by having their total contribution calculated to represent lives saved -­ and Flinders registered the highest number of donations from any tertiary organisation in South Australia during 2017.

The Red25 program showed that an estimated 4,179 lives were saved as a consequence of 1,393 blood donations during the year, with this figure being Australia’s second highest number of tertiary sector blood donations.

Flinders was also applauded for registering the highest number of new blood donors within South Australia’s tertiary sector.

The Flinders contribution was a big part of a successful campaign that saw Red25 donations account for 31.5 per cent of all blood donations in 2017.

While Red Cross staff are delighted by the 2017 outcomes, they hope to improve on blood donation numbers in 2018 – with specific attention placed on generating more blood donations during March.

This is seen as a problematic period for consistent donations due to numerous public holidays and festival distractions, so Red Cross Blood Donor Services Manager for SA and NT, Lawry Sancilio, is imploring more Flinders people to register now and donate blood as part of Red25.

For more information about how to donate blood, visit donateblood.com.au/red25 or call 13 14 95.