Guinness World Record achieved as 70,000 people register to donate blood within 24 hours

    GWACHEON, KOREA, October 21, 2022 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Korean volunteers were listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest number of registered blood donors within 24 hours. The youth volunteer group 'We Are One' completed online blood donation applications for 71,121 volunteers within 24 hours to challenge the Guinness World Records on October 1st.

This Guinness Challenge was initiated to share the importance of donating blood amidst the Korean national blood shortage caused by COVID-19. To help solve this problem, the 'Life ON' blood donation campaign by the 'We are One' volunteer organization was launched.

According to the data on blood donations during 2018-2021 from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the demand for blood for patients who are battling the disease has increased dramatically. Blood supply has been struggling due to a decrease in the general blood donation volume over the past three years. In particular, from 2020 to 2021, patients in need had great difficulty in finding blood donors as there was high demand for blood due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To help alleviate this burden on the patients in need, 'We are One' planned a large-scale campaign called the "70,000 Blood Donation Challenge". The purpose of this campaign, according to the organization, is to inform the public that although the threat of COVID-19 is less prevalent than before, the blood shortage still exists.

A total of 70,000 volunteers applied for blood donation services from 8:00 am on October 1st to 8:00 am on October 2nd through 'Red Connect', the official blood donation application of the Korean Red Cross. This is seven times the previous world record of 12,217 donor registrations in 8 hours held by India.

The Guinness World Records organization approved the world record update on October 13th. It was mentioned that the process of conducting and reviewing the event by the Guinness World Records representatives was not easy because of the large volume of volunteers who applied at the same time.

A representative of 'We are One', who planned the challenge, said, "The key was to set up a schedule for 70,000 people and proceed smoothly so that there would be no errors due to a possible system overload. We rehearsed the registration with the help of the Korean Red Cross, but I was nervous because I didn't know if there might be a sudden change on the day of the challenge," he said.

A volunteer blood donor who participated in the challenge said, "I practiced the registration so that I wouldn't make a mistake, and I set an alarm so that I could log in on time. It was a simple task for each person, but it is not easy for 70,000 people to keep their promises…and the server had to work without any problem. I was really desperate for it to work."

In addition, the Korean Red Cross Blood Management Headquarters technical team checked the Red Connect servers carefully so that other blood donation reservations would not be inconvenienced by the Guinness World Record challenge on that day and inadvertently cancel other public donation registrations.

Junsu Hong, CEO of 'We are One', said, "This challenge is to share the situation of patients suffering because of a lack of blood supply amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, and to publicize and participate in the value and importance of blood donation that saves lives around the world, going beyond simple record listing. It was possible not only because of the volunteers, but also the Korean Red Cross officials who are working at the forefront to solve the blood shortage, and the company that developed a convenient blood donation app. COVID-19 can be defeated when we are all one."

'We are One' was launched on July 30 this year. The organization has been conducting the '70,000 Blood Donation' campaign since August 27. As of the October 16th, a total of 67,147 people took on the challenge, 47,706 people completed blood donations, and the plan is for 70,000 people to complete their blood donations by November.

The official record is accessible in the Guinness World RecordsTM website found here.

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