The concept of the Blood Care Foundation (BCF) originally received a great deal of support from the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence in the late 1980s and, since 1989, we have worked closely with the Swiss Red Cross (SRC).

Although the general medical communities in France, Switzerland, the UK and Nigeria did not believe the Foundation’s proposed services could work, as it was too difficult to move blood internationally, in 1989 a blood bank was set up in the British High Commission in Lagos on a trial basis. Once the expatriate and local medical communities in Nigeria saw the idea of a facility holding properly screened blood had become a reality, it received their overwhelming support.

During the past 19 years, the Foundation has developed an international network, including its own blood banks, from where screened blood may be dispatched to anywhere in the world in an emergency.

Currently, around 30 Plcs and thousands of individuals are covered by the service, which is financed through differing forms of membership fees.