Bermuda Hospitals Board announces The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited is winner of Corporate Blood Drive

Bermuda Hospitals Board (“BHB”) is pleased to announce today that The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited (“Butterfield”) has won the first-ever Corporate Blood Drive. Launched earlier this year in partnership with the Ministry of Health, Seniors and the Environment, the blood drive was designed to increase the Bermuda Blood Donor Centre’s current donor base.

Local businesses and international companies were invited to participate in the first phase, which began in February and ended on 14 June. During that time period, Butterfield achieved the highest percentage of donations and the most points and was presented with an engraved trophy and certificate.

This friendly competition will now be run annually to identify and commend companies and organizations for promoting and supporting blood donation among their staff, family members and friends. Going forward, each year in June, the corporation with the highest percentage of donations from the preceding year will be acknowledged.

Acting Minister of Health, Seniors and the Environment, The Hon. Trevor Moniz JP, MP, said: “The Blood Donor Centre belongs to each of us and it is vitally important that we all take responsibility to ensure our community has a sufficient blood supply. I applaud every company and organization on our Island that participated in this initiative, which has helped us expand our current donor base in order to maintain sustainability and reduce the pressure on those who do donate. I congratulate Butterfield, their staff, family members and friends for being committed to our island’s health and wellbeing and for their efforts to support the Bermuda Blood Donor Centre. All of us can make a difference in our community by saving and improving the lives of people who need blood. Each of us is a stakeholder in the matter of giving blood – you never know when it might be you or a loved one who needs this life-saving gift.”

Dr. Clyde Wilson, BHB Chief of Pathology said: “We would like to encourage all corporations and organizations to participate in our 2014/2015 Corporate Blood Drive, which begins this week. There remains a constant need for new donors in order to meet the needs of our patients. Currently, about 1,100 people are donors and in order for us to provide a ready supply of blood to the hospital, we would like to increase our donor pool to around 2000 people. Blood supplies are not imported and we depend solely on members of the public to meet the needs of our patients. While we are grateful to the hundreds of loyal donors already regularly giving blood, we need to increase our donor base in order to assure adequate supplies are always readily available. For this reason, we encourage local companies and organizations to make a difference by registering for in our annual Corporate Blood Drive.”

Michael Collins, Butterfield’s Senior Executive Vice President for Bermuda, said: “Butterfield is honoured to receive this award on behalf of our employees who took the time to donate blood. Hopefully their efforts will serve as an example to others within Butterfield and at other companies, and together we can help boost the number of regular donors. Making a donation only takes about half an hour, but that one donation may be used to save up to three lives. And one out of every three people in Bermuda is expected to require blood at some point, so it’s important to all of us and a cause that the Bank and our people are happy to support”.

Blood Donation
• Most healthy people between 18 and 70 who weigh a minimum of 110lbs can donate blood.
• Healthy blood is vital to us all. It has three major functions: to carry oxygen and nutrients to the body cells so they can create energy; to help defend the body against infections and injuries; and to remove waste products from the body cells.
• The average adult contains 10 to 12 pints of blood, which contains many substances including red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma.
• When you donate blood, one pint is taken which is then separated into different components.

Photo caption- left to right: Butterfield employees Melvin Dickinson and Sharmaine Landy; the Hon. Trevor Moniz; Blood Donor Centre Mascot Betsie Blood Drop; Senior Vice President Corporate Banking Sean Smatt; Butterfield employee Nakita Dyer and Bermuda Hospitals Board Chief of Pathology, Dr. Clyde Wilson

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