Hundreds of Polish blood donors have joined a campaign to help the Irish Blood Transfusion Board.

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They have pledged to donate blood - and encourage others to do the same.

Theresa Buczkowska from the Immigrant Council of Ireland says the Polish community is the largest migrant population group in Ireland and their support will make a big difference.

She said:

[quote]We want to save lives, we want to be active members of our communities and we also want to challenge negative stereotypes around the Polish community. We want to change negative connotations that people might sometimes hold against the Polish community into something positive.[/quote]

"We know that during summer time, blood donation drops because people are going are, having a great time and forgetting to go to the blood donation clinics so this is actually the perfect time to do a campaign like this to make sure that the supply of blood in Ireland is on a safe level."

Andrew Kelly, the CEO of the Irish Blood Transfusion Board says it is making a big difference.

He said: "The Polish Community have a long tradition of blood donation in their own country and we are trying to tap into that strong culture by asking them to donate in Ireland.

"We have about 1200 Polish donors on our donor base at the moment and we want to increase that to about 2,500 out of the 125,000 Polish people that are in Ireland currently. This is a wonderful initiative being strongly supported by the Polish community in a number of areas around the country."

- Digital Desk