NHSBT partner with video game ‘Table Manners’ to promote giving blood this Valentine’s Day

Celebrated video games publisher Curve Digital, developer Echo Chamber Games and NHSBT are collaborating to promote blood donation to video gamers across England in the forthcoming physics-based dating game, Table Manners.

This collaboration is part of NHSBT’s ‘What’s Your Type?’ marketing campaign which is encouraging certain types of people to start donating blood. Men are particularly in need as their blood is used to provide life-saving products like plasma and platelets – to save victims of burns, car crashes and to treat patients with cancer. During February, NHSBT is especially hoping to recruit new male donors with the O negative, B negative and A negative blood types (1), though all donors are of course encouraged and welcomed. 

Table Manners will be the first video game to ever join forces with NHSBT. It’s hoped the partnership will encourage those gamers who are able to find out their blood type and make an appointment to donate at one of the permanent donor centres in larger towns and cities across England (2).

The partnership will see Give Blood messaging added in-game to Table Manners in time for launch on PC on Friday 14th February, as well as multiple messages to the community in the run up to launch. Additionally, all those who visit the Give Blood NHS Twitter channel will be able to register for a chance to win one of 100 digital copies of the game.

Nadine Eaton, Head of Blood Donor Recruitment for NHS Blood and Transplant, said: “All our donors are amazing. But we need more than 68,000 men to start donating blood this year. This is not about recruiting as many donors as possible – it’s about getting the right gender mix. We’re thrilled that ‘Table Manners’ tongue in cheek gameplay will reach new audiences and inspire them to save lives.”

“When we learned that NHS Blood and Transplant were looking to inform new audiences about the need for more blood donors, we jumped at the chance to help them,” said Simon Byron, publishing director at Curve Digital.

“Table Manners like every other game out there has the power to reach and engage in a way other mediums cannot. We're proud to have a wide and diverse audience of gamers playing Curve's games and welcome them all. If our partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant inspires a few people to register, then we'd be very, very happy indeed..”

Table Manners will launch exclusively on Steam on Friday 14th February worldwide.  If you would like to become a blood donor you can register to donate today.

Notes

1. These blood types are especially needed for the following reasons:
• O negative – The universal blood group that can be given to everyone. It is often used when a patient’s blood type is not known, for example in an emergency situation.
• B negative - Only 2% of donors are B negative and finding news donors is difficult. B negative can be used as an alternative for patients with blood disorders when not enough B positive is available.
• A negative – A negative has platelets which can be given to anyone. Platelets are tiny cells that help stop bleeding – they are especially important for cancer patients. 
• AB negative - AB negative is the rarest blood type, accounting for just 1% of our blood donors.
2. The sixteen donor centres this campaign focuses on are: Tooting, London - West End, Cambridge, Luton, Nottingham, Leicester, Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester (Plymouth Grove and Norfolk House), Birmingham, Bristol, Gloucester, Southampton and Poole.