Shortland Street is the life blood of Kiwi actors and now two of the TV2 soap's stars are repaying the favour.
Will Hall, who plays spunky Dr Kip Denton and Nisha Madhan (nurse Shanti Kumari) rolled up their sleeves on Friday to donate blood on set to mark World Blood Donor Day.
It was only the second time Will, who has a fear of needles, had given blood.
"When I was living in Wellington I saw the (mobile donation) van and I thought, `I should do it, I should do it but I pussied out'," he told Sunday News.
Will manned up after reading how in the past year only four percent of the eligible population had donated blood and every year the NZ Blood Service lost 3000 donors.
Will said he was fine after donating and it was a "humble thing to do".
He now planned to "step up to the needle" more regularly.
Co-star Kiel McNaughton who plays the role of nursing manager Scotty was on hand to support his colleagues.
With his wife due to have their third child, he was relieved to know if any complications occur, blood will be hand.
The Shorty Street stars were also given a first hand account of how important the donations were by Zoe Donegan.
The 20-year-old lost a significant amount of blood during surgery to remove a rare brain tumour when she was 12 and needed three units of blood to replace what was lost.
Despite being "weirded out" by it at first she now realised how important that blood was and encouraged everyone to donate.
The NZ Blood Service needs over 3000 units of blood every week.
Over 42,000 New Zealanders need blood or blood products each year.
Each donation can save up to three lives.
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