PEOPLE in Huddersfield are being urged to give blood now to save lives this winter.

NHS Blood and Transport (NHSBT) has launched the appeal to avoid a shortage of stocks as regular donors fall ill with swine flu.

The need for blood donors is ever present, with hospitals in Yorkshire using 3,397 units of blood each week.

But the dip in winter donations is expected to be greater this year due to a combination of seasonal and swine flu.

As people can’t give blood when they have flu, the NHSBT needs to build up stocks now to prepare for the second wave of the virus expected in the autumn and winter.

To help with this, a new campaign has been launched using the message: "Don’t wait to donate – and bring your mate."

The aim is to encourage regular donors to recruit a friend and encourage first-time donors to take a ‘blood buddy’ with them for support.

Around 7,000 donations are needed each day to keep hospitals stocked with the blood they need for transfusions and treatments for people fighting cancer, having operations, women giving birth and road traffic accident victims.

Lynda Hamlyn, chief executive of NHS Blood and Transplant, said: "We hope ‘buddying up’ will encourage more people to give blood and spread the word. There’s always a dip in donations over summer and people can’t give blood when they’ve got flu, so we need people to donate now.

"If you’ve always intended to give blood but never got around to it, please come along this summer."

The campaign is being supported by celebrities including news presenter Natasha Kaplinsky, who once interviewed Examiner reporter Adrian Sudbury.

Adrian, who died from leukaemia last August, aged 27, was keen to promote blood donation as he needed many transfusions during his treatment.

The next local blood donating session is next Monday (August 24) at Huddersfield Methodist Mission at Lord Street.

Sessions are held in Huddersfield in the afternoons and early evenings from 2pm to 4pm and 5pm to 7.30pm.

For information on sessions at other times and venues visit www.blood.co.uk or call 0300 123 2323.