SPEECH BY MR ONG YE KUNG, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND COORDINATING MINISTER FOR SOCIAL POLICIES AT WORLD BLOOD DONOR DAY

Professor Benjamin Ong, Chairman, Health Sciences Authority (HSA)

Adjunct Professor Raymond Chua, Chief Executive Officer, HSA

Mr Tan Kai Hoe, Chairman, Singapore Red Cross (SRC)

Mr Benjamin William, Secretary General and CEO, SRC

Champion blood donors, ladies and gentlemen

1. A very good morning. I am very happy to join you today at the World Blood Donor Day 2025.

2. This is our annual gathering, to honour you blood donors, our unsung heroes in Singapore. Each blood donation saves up to three lives, such as a child battling cancer, a mother in labour or an elderly person undergoing surgery. Last year, more than 35,000 patients in Singapore received life-saving blood transfusions. Today, we are recognising over 2,000 champion blood donors. Your extraordinary commitment sets an inspiring example for everyone in Singapore.

Structural and Seasonal Challenges

3. Let me first talk about the status of our blood banks.

4. The consequences of a lack of blood supply are quite severe. Surgeries would have to be postponed, treatments have to be delayed, patients needing immediate transfusions could face life-threatening situations.

5. Unfortunately, like many advanced and developed countries worldwide, blood banks in Singapore are facing an uphill task with enough supply to meet demand because we all have an ageing population. An ageing population drives up demand for blood products, while supply is constrained by a declining pool of eligible blood donors, and new donors are also falling, from 20,000 in 2013 to about 18,000 in 2024.

6. But this is the structural challenge, where long-term supply finds it very hard to meet demand. There is also seasonal challenge. There are seasonal mismatches that we also have to manage. During festive periods, school holidays, and long weekends, when more donors travel overseas, donation rates drop significantly and that is when the situation is even more difficult.

7. It is particularly challenging to maintain sufficient O+ blood type as this is in highest demand, so O+ stocks frequently fluctuate between low and moderate levels.

8. Early last year, during the festive season, we ran into a critical shortage of O blood supply. I discussed with HSA, and we decided I would personally rally for blood donation. So I put out a call on my social media. The response was most gratifying, and beyond all our expectations. Within one week, the blood stock rose by close to 2.3 times. This is a little bit like crowdsourcing, but the difference is that for crowdsourcing, you just make a payment online. Here, the donors step forth to the blood bank, roll up your sleeves, get poked by a needle, and donate some blood.

9. This experience gives us some bright beacons of hope. People are willing to donate blood help others, but like everyone who needs help, we need to ask sincerely. We need to make it convenient for do-gooders to donate blood. We also need to minimise rejecting people who are stepping forward to donate.

Getting Better at Asking

10. I was one of those people who wanted to donate blood, but could not. When my mother was sick, she needed quite a bit of blood transfusion. After she passed, I thought it was time for me to give back. But every time I went to the blood bank, I was rejected. The reason is a valid one because in the 1980s, as a student, I lived and studied in the United Kingdom (UK). The worry is I might be incubating the Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) due to the possible consumption of contaminated beef.

11. However, thanks to a revision in policy, I am now able to donate blood through apheresis. It is quite a clever process. They take my blood and then return what they do not want, keep what they want and that makes the risk of blood contamination by vCJD almost negligible.

12. We will be relaxing restrictions for blood donation on another front, so that we minimise the rejection of people willing to do, and that is seniors. Many seniors wish to do their part, but are unable to do so because there is a current age restriction of 60 for first-time donors. This was put in place also for a good reason – to ensure that seniors, who may be weaker, do not suffer from adverse side effects after donating blood. 60 applies to new blood donors.

13. That said, as life expectancy increases over the years, people are generally getting stronger. I commonly meet people in their 60s who look just as young, or even younger than me, and I am 56. In fact, our local data showed that adverse donor reaction actually decreases with age amongst our first-time donors up to the current limit of 60 years old. There is no reason to believe that once you cross 60 years old, suddenly the adverse reaction prevalence rate is going to shoot up.

14. HSA will therefore be raising the upper age limit of first-time blood donors from 60 to 65 years, from 1 January 2026. I commend HSA for making this move. This change aligns the practice in many territories around the world, such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Ireland, the Netherlands, South Korea, UK etc.

Community and Youth-Led Advocacy

15. While policy adjustments are useful and important, the success of the blood donation movement ultimately depends on ground-up participation of our people and here, we have witnessed many inspiring community and youth-led initiatives.

16. Today, we are recognising 34 of such outstanding organisations which led these initiatives. We are awarding and recognising you with the Blood Champion Merit and Gold Awards. Let me talk about a few of them.

17. When singers Olivia Rodrigo and Gracie Abrams performed in Singapore in 2024 and 2025 respectively, I missed both concerts, but their fans transformed fandom into meaningful action. Together with the SRC’s YouthInspire group, fan clubs and local businesses, they organised blood donation drives – complete with singalongs, photobooths and donor perks. The events created a welcoming, festive atmosphere where social impact felt joyful and meaningful.

18. The SRC Youth Chapters of the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University came together last year to roll out campus-wide donations. They collaborated with co-curricular activity clubs, student unions and residential halls. As a result, we saw an excellent response of more than 1,000 youths, many of them students, donating blood during those activities.

19. We have powerful champions in the business sector too. At Neo Group, founder Mr Neo Kah Kiat is leading by example, donating blood frequently. His entire staff are encouraged to donate blood and in 2024, from that one company alone, we collected 900 units from Neo Catering.

20. At ExxonMobil Corporation, blood donation is now part of their corporate DNA. Every year, their teams organise everything from community outreach to engaging mascot appearances to encourage blood donation.

21. And then there is the Bishan Community Club, which hosts tri-annual blood drives that have become cornerstone events for the Bishan community.

22. We are also seeking new and creative partnerships. In December last year, SRC collaborated with Peanuts, which is the Snoopy cartoon, in a month-long campaign to drive blood donation. Blood donors could receive an exclusive Peanuts souvenir, and they enjoyed special appearances by the characters, like Snoopy and Charlie Brown.

23. At the end of the campaign, we collected 900, or 7% more units of blood compared to December 2023. More encouragingly, first-time donors shot up by 40%.

24. These successful events taught us a clear lesson – blood donation is for a serious cause, but it can be done with fun and laughter. After all, giving should be joyous. The more you give, the happier you can become. HSA and SRC will continue to expand their partnerships, curating collaborations with brands, with organisations, that can make blood donation convenient, relatable and joyful.

Closing

25. Throughout Singapore, from schools to army camps, community centres to blood banks, donors from all walks of life step forward to present the precious gift of blood to complete strangers, such as my mother. Whoever donated blood to her did not even know her but prolonged and saved her life many times. Students, working professionals, and retirees alike understand that your simple gesture can profoundly impact others. This collective commitment transforms our community into powerful networks of everyday heroes, a Community with Many Lifesavers.

26. Let us continue this critical mission of ensuring Singapore's blood supply remains sustainable for generations to come. Thank you, and Happy World Blood Donor Day!