After fulfilling your civic duty of casting the vote on Saturday, consider heading to Pietà to donate blood.

Several donors – including journalists – are often kept busy with political activities during the election campaign, putting blood donation on the backburner.

But the need for 50 bags a day remains, and the doors of the National Blood Transfusion unit, which is next to St Luke’s Hospital, in Pietà, are kept open throughout the week. In its most recent appeal, the unit is currently short of A Positive blood.

Blood donation is essential for cancer treatment, accidents and operations. Contacted by this newspaper, Tony Micallef, the practice nurse in charge of donor liaison, noted that June would see an additional number of scoliosis operations.  This is a yearly occurrence – with some 20 such procedures being carried out twice annually, in June and November.