National Health Service urges people to give blood in a new advert running in the UK, which highlights that nearly 700 new donors are needed every day, just to keep the country going.

To illustrate this idea, the spot features a man delivering bottles of blood before the crack of dawn to people living on a street. When a pregnant woman gets out of her house to ask for a bottle, the man tells her he doesn’t have any more and that he is sorry. “We need nearly 700 new donors everyday just to keep the country going,” the voiceover says, adding “Bleed for the things that matter to us all”.

At the end of the spot, onscreen lines read “Save a life, Give blood” and “Join us at blood.co.uk”.

The rules on blood donation in England changed on 28th November 2017, giving more people to opportunity to donate blood without affecting the safety of the blood supply. Details are available at the NHS website. There is also a movile app called “NHS Give Blood”, which is aimed at making donating blood easier from start to finish by providing information about your blood type, who can receive your blood, when you are next able to safely donate blood, and enabling you to book an appointment.

This is not the first campaign running in the UK to encourage people to donate blood. National television campaigns launched by the National Blood Service featured a host of celebrities including Richard Branson, Heather Mills, Gary Lineker, Bill Roach and Claire Sweeney.