The beginnings of blood donation in the Red Cross date back to 1935, which was 83 years ago.

Blood donation was not initially a primary area of interest for the authorities of the Polish Red Cross (PCK). It was only in the 1930s, in the face of an impending war and the popularization of transfusiology, that voices began to call for the transfer of blood donation-related issues to the PCK. Experts in the field voiced the necessity of organizing centers for blood donors, pointing to the Polish Red Cross as the institution predestined for this task. The beginnings of blood donation issues in the PCK were marked not only by the organization of blood donor centers and blood collection but, above all, by research activities.

In 1935, the PCK began organized activities in the field of blood transfusion, including organizing courses for doctors and promoting blood donation. The first Blood Transfusion Institute in Poland was also established in 1935 under the leadership of Henryk Gnoiński, at the Main Hospital of the PCK in Warsaw.

The Institute was located at Smolna Street 6, within a complex consisting of seven buildings. Three of them were occupied by the hospital (departments: surgical, gynecological, internal), two housed the PCK School of Nursing and the Blood Transfusion and Conservation Institute, while the others housed administration and technical support. The Main Hospital, the Nursing School, and the Blood Transfusion and Conservation Institute were directly subordinate to the PCK's Main Board. Research was conducted at the Institute on the preservation of blood and the regeneration of blood after significant losses and under the influence of fresh blood transfusions.

The first Blood Transfusion and Conservation Institute in Poland (established by H. Gnoiński) was created thanks to the initiative and long-term efforts of Professor Bolesław Szarecki. At the time of the establishment of this unit, he was a member of the Main Board of the PCK. He had been interested in blood donation and blood transfusion since the 1920s. Szarecki's active participation in many discussions about organizing blood donation, as well as his knowledge of the development of global transfusiology, were influential and significant in Poland. Bolesław Szarecki was the sanitary chief of the PCK and, since 1937, the director of the Main Hospital of the PCK, so he had a significant impact on the cooperation between the Nursing School, the Main Hospital of the PCK, and the Blood Transfusion and Conservation Institute.

Henryk Gnoiński at the Blood Transfusion Institute conducted research on the regeneration of blood after significant losses and under the influence of fresh and preserved blood transfusions. At the II International Blood Transfusion Congress in Paris in 1937, he announced the results of his research on preserved blood, which aroused general interest. He also conducted classes for students at the University of Warsaw in the field of blood pathology. The PCK Institute quickly gained a good reputation and was regarded as one of the best institutions of its kind in Europe. Blood was preserved for both military and civilian medical needs. The Institute collaborated with the State Institute of Hygiene run by Ludwik Hirszfeld.

At the Institute, a Center for Professional Blood Donors who donated blood for payment and a Center for Honorary Blood Donors were established. In 1938, 140 liters of blood were collected from 812 members. The members of the Center were recruited from academic circles and volunteer women's organizations.

Alongside the PCK Institute, there was also the Trauma Institute established by doctor Tadeusz Sokołowski in 1935 in Warsaw, which worked on blood preservation. The Blood Transfusion and Conservation Institute of the PCK and the Trauma Institute were separate and competing entities. However, it was the Blood Transfusion and Conservation Institute, managed by the PCK, that had the opportunity to develop due to the financial and material resources of that organization and the efficient functioning of its structures, as well as support from the Polish authorities.

Another unit of a similar nature was the Central Accident Station with a Blood Transfusion Center in Łódź, established a year earlier. The aim of this institution was to provide assistance to those in need both at its headquarters and at the scene of an accident (in the factory). Henryk Gnoiński described the activities of this institution in a brochure on blood donation from 1938, calling it: the Accident Section of the PCK in Łódź; he also mentioned the Blood Transfusion Center operating under the accident section, which was responsible for performing transfusions, preparing, examining, and registering donors.

Evidence that blood donation was an increasingly important topic not only from a medical but also a social perspective is the Regulation of the Minister of Social Welfare from 1937 – the first Polish legal act regulating blood donation.