This summer, lend an arm - A stop at a blood drive can save several lives

MONTREAL, July 12 /CNW Telbec/ - As part of its This summer, lend a hand. Lend an arm. campaign, launched on June 14, Héma-Québec is appealing to the generosity of blood donors; the coming weeks will be important for maintaining the collective blood reserve at an adequate level.

Despite the arrival of the sunny season, 1,000 blood donations are still needed every day to satisfy the needs of the province's hospitals. This summer, any healthy person over the age of 18 who satisfies Héma-Québec's eligibility criteria can make a major difference for patients who need blood components.

While you lie back in one of the Héma-Québec comfortable chairs, it only takes a few minutes to give blood. In order to enable as many donors as possible to make this vital gesture, Héma-Québec is going out to meet vacationers and will be on the site of several campgrounds during the month of July as well as at a variety of air conditioned sites, starting with numerous shopping malls.

Where can people give blood?

To obtain a list of the blood drives for Montréal and Western Québec, call INFO-COLLECTE at 1-800-343-7264 and 1-800-761-6610 for Québec City and the Eastern part of the province. Donors can also consult the Héma-Québec home page at www.hema-quebec.qc.ca, and select Where to donate blood?

The three Globule Blood Donor Centres, located at Place Versailles and the Centre Laval in the Montréal region and at Place Laurier Québec in the Sainte-Foy sector, also welcome donors seven days per week.

To determine their eligibility to give blood, donors can call 1-800-847-2525 or consult Who can donate blood? in the Donate section of Héma-Québec's web site.

About Héma-Québec

Héma-Québec aims to efficiently provide adequate quantities of safe, optimal blood components, substitutes, human tissues and cord blood to meet all Quebecers' needs; provide and develop expertise along with specialized and innovative services and products in the fields of transfusion medicine and human tissue transplantation.

Héma-Québec counts 1,300 employees, some 2,000 blood drives and more than 300,000 blood donors every year, 16,000 partner volunteers and more than 485,000 blood products annually delivered to hospitals in Quebec to fulfill patients' needs.

Give blood. Give life.

For further information: Valérie Legault, Information Officer, HEMA-QUEBEC, Media Line: 514-832-0871, [email protected]; www.hema-quebec.qc.ca