Presenters and staff at Star Radio in Cambridge are supporting NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) in their campaign to find more platelet donors for the Cambridge Blood Donor Centre.

A one-off platelet testing session is being held at a mobile blood unit at Star Radio’s studios in Mercer’s Row, Cambridge on Friday 18 May from 10am – 2pm.

The mobile unit will be in the radio station’s car park and local people are being asked to make an appointment to be tested to see if they’re suitable for platelet donation, as only around one in four people normally have a high enough platelet count.

As a local station for the Cambridge area, Star Radio are hoping that the recruitment and testing day will attract many more donors.

Star Radio News Editor, Emma Howgego said: “We approached the blood service to see if we could help encourage more people to give whole blood. However, when we found out that Cambridge Donor Centre is one of only two centres in the East of England to collect platelets we decided there and then we wanted to get involved with promoting platelet donation.

“Most of our staff and presenters have never given blood and they’re all going to lead by example and be tested on the day to see if they can become platelet donors. And to say thank you to those that come along, we’ll even show them around the Star Radio studios afterwards and give them a cup of tea.”

Many hospitals across East Anglia are supplied from donations made at the Cambridge Donor Centre on the Addenbrookes Hospital site.

Platelets are tiny cells in the blood which help to stem blood loss by enabling clotting and crucial supplies only have a seven day shelf-life.  Platelet transfusions are often needed for very ill patients whose bone marrow isn’t working properly, including cancer or leukaemia sufferers undergoing chemotherapy.

Georgina Norris, Donor Relations Co-ordinator for NHSBT, said: “We are absolutely delighted that Star Radio have come on board with us to attract more platelet donors, so we can ensure a safe and sufficient supply of platelets for all those patients who need them.”

Platelet donors are encouraged to donate regularly, at least once a month and more if possible. You could become a platelet donor if you are between 17 and 65.  If you are aged 66 – 70 you need to have given blood before, and if you are over 70 then you need to have given a full blood donation in the last two years.

Anybody who wants to provide a sample on 18 May should make an appointment by contacting Emma Howgego at emma.howgego@star107.co.uk or call 01223 305107 during office hours.

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I like the idea of local niche websites being there to promote conversation at local level, can only be a good thing with regards to keeping the standards of passenger transport high.  They also have deals on which is what interested me initially as I am off to London on a regular basis these days.

So if you get a moment – pop over and say hi to the guys at taxi Ely, they have supported a competition that we have run on the radio station called cash cab which I really appreciate.

Taxi Ely will earn about 10p for every ticket they sell so I thought it only fair I share their link in case you need any tickets – they are going to have to sell a lot lol !

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Put simply the multiplier effect is achieved by coordinating several different campaigns to run together across different types of media or communication. Radio and online advertising is growing fast and has been highly effective for some time.

Ernest Doe decided to go all out on the multiplier effect with radio, press and some physical outdoor activity all of which was kept to the minimum cost but the effect of which created a noise which was far higher than the spending power of the budget they had and even created some viral traction as stories appeared in the local press.

The video below shows the external activity that Ernest Doe organised to co-incide with the running of the radio commercial that you can hear in the video. You can imagine the interest the Aliens created as people drove past. Brilliant fun and actually an excellent way to maximise the promotional activity they engaged in with their radio campaign!

Ernest Doe Promotional Activity to support Star Radio Advertising Campaign

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In the year 2000 the Eagle Radio station launched in Cambridge. Broadcasting on 107.9 it was the previous incarnation of my Radio station Star Radio.  The first song that was played on that day was Stephen Gately and New Beginning which was his brand new single.  An interview was done by one of our sister stations with Stephen and the audio you can hear here was of course never broadcast as it was the chat leading up to us using his song to launch the station.

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