Donating blood is one of the simplest gestures that almost everyone can do to save lives. No heroism, but a great willingness to make room for the needs of others, putting one’s own body, one’s time on the line, without harming one’s health, but with enormous benefits for those who need our blood to survive. A human gesture, but also profoundly Christian.
It’s important to reiterate this today, when World Blood Donor Day is celebrated. Blood, our blood, is a precious resource for the National Health Service, a principle that constitutes the foundation of the Italian transfusion system and contributes to guaranteeing fairness, safety and availability of treatment for thousands of patients. And generous Italians are there, according to data relating to 2025 on blood donation in Italy presented to the Ministry of Health on the occasion of the launch of the media awareness campaign entitled “Donating is the most beautiful action”, whose testimonial is the volleyball champion, now TV commentator, Andrea ‘Lucky’ Lucchetta. In 2025 the total number of donors was 1 million 664 thousand, a decrease of 0.8% compared to the previous year. Positive trend (+1.4%) for periodic donors, who are the foundation of the system and who today represent 85% of all donors. As illustrated by the director of the National Blood Centre, Luciana Teofili, on the occasion of the presentation of the campaign to the Ministry of Health, Italy, “thanks to donors, has been self-sufficient in terms of red blood cells for almost twenty years”. As regards plasma, the generosity of donors allowed a record figure of 920 tonnes to be allocated to the production of plasma-derived medicines in 2025.
Overall, in 2025, the largest group of donors in relation to the population is those between 46-55 years of age (63.6 donors per thousand inhabitants). The least numerous and tending to shrink is the 18-25 age group (34.1 donors per thousand inhabitants). Here’s the sore point: Among younger people, this willingness to donate is being lost, a trend that needs to be reversed also with targeted awareness campaigns, to avoid finding ourselves faced with blood emergencies again in the not too distant future. The bulk of the donations take place through the action of Avis, which has over 1.3 million donors and more than 2 million donations per year, and promotes a series of information and awareness initiatives to spread the culture of giving and strengthen awareness of the importance of blood and plasma donation. «World Blood Donor Day is an opportunity to reiterate the value of voluntary donation which represents the foundation of the Italian transfusion system» he states the president of AVIS Nazionale, Oscar Bianchi . «Defending the gift means guaranteeing the country a system based on solidarity, security and collective responsibility».
