A new drive is seeking to increase the number of blood donors from the South Asian community.
The partnership between NHS Blood and Transplant and charity Sewa Day is attempting to address the shortfall – around eight per cent of the population of England is Asian but only around three per cent of people who have given blood in England in the last 12 months is Asian.
However, the number of Asian blood donors is increasing, with a seven per cent rise in donors from an Indian Asian background in 2017 from the previous year.