A new mobile blood donation unit worth nearly €100,000 has been donated to the National Centre of Transfusion Haematology in Sofia. The donor is the association "I Believe and Help".

The association paid for the unit in full, and it was built to a custom design. It is the fourth such unit the group has donated. It has given two this year, worth €200,000 in total.

Actor Hristo Pudev was the first to give blood in the new unit.

"We are donating this brand-new unit to the specialists who have given of themselves for years, and to the people who need blood," the association's founder Vladislav Nikolov told BTA. He said the donations come from hundreds of people and 100% of the money goes to the campaign. So far the association has donated more than 30 new children's ambulances, incubators, and medical equipment. It also gave Bulgaria its first specialised mobile blood donation units.

Centre director Dr Krasimira Terzieva said the unit will help reach more would-be donors who live far from the centre or have no time to come. The centre sends teams to organisations and companies: they provide a room, and the centre provides the team and equipment.

The centre's first trip further afield was in September, to Gotse Delchev, where 79 people gave blood. A session was held in Samokov yesterday. There are almost no free dates for giving blood until Christmas.

"The problem of the shortage of nurses remains," Terzieva told BTA. Working hours stay the same for now. She said the centre could work two shifts if it finds 10 nurses and more transfusion haematology specialists.