SANBS – South African National Blood Service

In addition to routine blood donor clinics scheduled by The South African National Blood Service (SANBS), there are a number of special services of which you can participate in special bleeding programmes aimed at addressing specific needs. These include: The Blood Service and Bone Marrow Donation: In some centres SANBS collects peripheral blood stem cells from donors identified through the SABMR, in addition to testing and registering potential bone marrow donors. A registration cost does apply.

Testing Costs

Testing costs are an issue and funding has to be obtained to cover these costs.

SANBS cannot accept money from donors and cannot be seen as trying to collect money to cover testing costs. This must be done by a private organization that can set up a fund to receive monies and can then be billed directly by SANBS for the cost of testing. The Sunflower Fund is now the private organization covering these costs.

The public is not generally aware of the difference between being a blood donor and being a Bone Marrow Stem Cell donor and tend to look at us as one organization. This is where the problem arises with the blood service being seen as asking for money for a “donation” and unfortunately this may affect the image of the service.

We cannot afford to alienate voluntary blood donors, and it was therefore essential that an independent fund be established where donations and payments can be made.