Bank of Butterfield staff have been recognised after making deposits into a different type of bank account.

The financial institution has been named winner of the first ever Corporate Blood Drive — a campaign launched by hospital bosses to increase stocks at the Blood Donor Centre.

According to a Bermuda Hospitals Board spokesman, local businesses and international companies were invited to participate in the first phase, which began in February and ended on 14 June. During that time period, Butterfield achieved the highest percentage of donations.

The competition was organised by the BHB in partnership with Government, and will now become an annual event.

Currently around 1,100 people are registered as donors with the centre, but more volunteers are needed.

“There remains a constant need for new donors in order to meet the needs of our patients,” the hospital’s Chief of Pathology Dr. Clyde Wilson said.

“We would like to encourage all corporations and organisations to participate in our 2014/2015 Corporate Blood Drive, which begins this week.

“In order for us to provide a ready supply of blood to the hospital, we would like to increase our donor pool to around 2000 people. Blood supplies are not imported and we depend solely on members of the public to meet the needs of our patients.

“While we are grateful to the hundreds of loyal donors already regularly giving blood, we need to increase our donor base in order to assure adequate supplies are always readily available. For this reason, we encourage local companies and organisations to make a difference by registering for in our annual Corporate Blood Drive.”

Michael Collins, Butterfield’s Senior Executive Vice President for Bermuda, added: “Butterfield is honoured to receive this award on behalf of our employees who took the time to donate blood. Hopefully their efforts will serve as an example to others within Butterfield and at other companies, and together we can help boost the number of regular donors.

“Making a donation only takes about half an hour, but that one donation may be used to save up to three lives. And one out of every three people in Bermuda is expected to require blood at some point, so it’s important to all of us and a cause that the Bank and our people are happy to support.”

Most healthy people between 18 and 70 who weigh a minimum of 110lbs can donate blood, which has three major functions — to carry oxygen and nutrients to the body cells so they can create energy, to help defend the body against infections and injuries, and to remove waste products from the body cells.

The average adult has between ten and 12 pints of blood, which contains many substances including red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma. When you donate blood, one pint is taken which is then separated into different components.

To ensure a donor is healthy enough to give blood, donors are asked to fill out a questionnaire and their blood pressure and haemoglobin are checked.

The entire process, including pre-testing, donating and time for refreshments afterwards takes about half an hour.