Presentation of the federal donor campaign was held at the RUSSIA EXPO

---

On April 17, the Federal Donor Campaign "I Know! I Can! I Help!", organized by the Federal Medical and Biological Agency of Russia, was launched in the pavilion of the Coordination Center of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The goal of the campaign is to popularize blood donation among young people: students will be able to replenish the blood bank and join the Federal Register of bone marrow and hematopoietic stem cell donors.

"For more than 15 years, FMBA has been implementing a state program to promote blood donation and its components. Over these years we have achieved certain successes. By now we have more than 1 million 400 thousand people in our donation base. Of course, this work should be continued, we periodically hold relevant campaigns popularizing donation. I would like to note that 99% of donors are gratuitous donors who actually give themselves to those people who need help," emphasized Igor Borisevich, Deputy Head of the Federal Medical and Biological Agency.

Educational institutions of Russia, which are actively developing the donor movement, have joined the event. Also today within the framework of the campaign, lectures on bone marrow donation are held in universities and specialized secondary educational institutions across the country.

"I had my first experience of blood donation 16 years ago, I was 38 years old. My wife inspired me to donate blood — she started donating while she was still a student. Many donors know the feeling of euphoria when you come out after donation. You feel that you are now involved in something big, collective, something good. If you are lucky, you can even save someone's life," said Nikolai Neudobnov, a donor with many years of experience from Moscow. He came to the start of the campaign "I Know! I Can! I Help!" together with his son Mikhail, who also became a donor following his parents.

April 20 is one of the most important social holidays in Russia — National Donor Day. On this day in 1832 in St. Petersburg, obstetrician Andrei Martynovich Wolf made the first successful transfusion of blood from man to man in our country.