Skipton, recently voted the best place to live in Britain, was “yarnbombed” with knitted blood drops on Friday as a finale to the Blood Doesn’t Grow On Trees campaign.

And the initiative was also to encourage O Rh negative (O negative) and B Rh negative (B negative) blood donors to give blood as soon as they can.

More than 2,000 blood drops were used to create a spectacle in the town, which is home to the Yarndale festival.

NHS Blood and Transplant, the organisation that collects blood from donors across England and North Wales, said that although the overall requirement for blood from hospitals across England and North Wales had reduced in recent years, the pressure on the different blood groups varied. Stocks of O negative and B negative blood were at their lowest level for four years.

Donna Batty, NHSBT spokesman, said: “We hope decorating Skipton in this way will help draw attention to the need for us to encourage O negative and B negative donors to come and give blood if they can in the next few days.

“We’re also asking donors of those blood groups who have an appointment coming up to keep it. We hope our fantastic donors respond to this appeal and that they bear with us if there are slightly longer waits than normal at the sessions as a result.”

The yarnbombing campaign, which has been running across England and North Wales over the past month, has highlighted the NHS Blood and Transplant need for new donors.

Leading knitting blogger and A-level art student Rebecca Willis – known as Granny Willis – created the original blood drop designs and attended the campaign finale in Skipton.

“The knitting community has done us proud and completely surpassed themselves, stunning us all with the response,” said 18-year-old Rebecca.

“I can’t believe we’ve received upwards of 8,000 knitted blood drops!

“When I saw Skipton covered in thousands of blood drops, I was amazed and in awe, not only because it’s created a great sense of community spirit and united generations, but because I was allowed to help make it happen.”

People wishing to register as a donor and book an appointment, can go to blood.co.uk/trees and click on register now.