The Herald will this week speak to people whose lives have been saved by blood donors and people who have donated, as part of our campaign, Bloody Good Type. The Blood Service said the supermarket chains are this week removing Os and As from the subject lines of emails to loyalty card scheme members. Blood Service chief executive Sam Cliffe said the real need was "As and Os". The Blood Service has around 110,000 blood donors on its database and about 42,000 people a year receive blood products. The NZ Blood Service produced 112,000 units of red blood cells last year, down from 138,000 in 2011.

Source: New Zealand Herald August 15, 2016 17:00 UTC