Important: 50 days left to save a life
Scotland needs over 25,000 donors to give blood before Hogmanay
NHS Scotland faces a busy winter – and SNBTS needs over 25,000 donors to come forward and book your appointment before Hogmanay.
With 50 days left of 2025, all blood groups are needed to support the important Winter and Festive period. In order to best support this, we've opened appointment grids early this year – with appointments available to book right up to the New Year.
Blood has a shelf life of 35 days, so the SNBTS are eager to ensure blood stock levels remain at good levels as we approach the Winter and Festive period. In recent weeks, we have faced difficulty with Group A, Group O and Group B Negative.
You must leave 12 weeks between each donation, so this means, for many donors, it is a perfect opportunity to book your first, second or third donation in 2025. We'd also love to welcome new donors – if you have been meaning to donate in 2025, but never got round it to it, we'd love to welcome you.
We particularly need people to give blood at our donor centres in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness over November and December. Our donor centres are collecting nearly 40% of Scotland's blood supply this Winter – so we really do need to welcome donors to these convenient donation locations.
We also have lots of community sessions in towns across Scotland - to find out what sessions are taking place near you, simply search using your town or postcode in our session finder.
How can I book an appointment?
You can now book an appointment for over Christmas and New Year by:
- phoning us on 0345 90 90 999
- logging in to your online donor account
- contacting us online
- emailing nss.snbtsenquiry@nhs.scot
We can't wait to give you a warm welcome.