Blood Clot Awareness Month 2026
Strong Enough To Ask: A Campaign to Stop the Clot
Blood clots affect up to 900,000 Americans each year — and up to 100,000 lives are lost. Many are preventable. Many are misdiagnosed. Too often, people hesitate to speak up when something doesn’t feel right — and blood clots can take advantage of that silence.
Being Strong Enough to Ask reframes strength as self-advocacy. This March, we’re empowering patients, clinicians, and the public with the tools to recognize risk, act early, and speak up when something doesn’t feel right.
Blood Clot Awareness Month Toolkit
The 2026 BCAM Toolkit provides ready-to-use resources to help you raise awareness and start prevention conversations.
Other Ways To Support BCAM 2026
Move with Purpose
Each year, more than 100,000 lives are lost in the U.S. to blood clots. That’s why 100,000 matters.
This March, join the 100,000 Reasons Challenge and help us reach:
- 100,000 miles moved
- $100,000 raised
- 100,000 people reached with education
Walk, run, roll, or ride — or participate as a fundraiser only. Every mile. Every dollar. Every share saves lives.
Support Life-Saving Education
Your Story Could Save a Life
Advocate for Federal Funding
Did you know there is no dedicated federal funding for blood clot education and awareness efforts in the U.S.? Help advocate for funding to support new education and awareness programs to reach more people with life-saving blood clot information. Just type in your zip code and send an email or letter to your Congressional representatives. Your voice matters!
Know the Signs
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why is it important to raise blood clot awareness?
- Every year, more than 100,000 people die from blood clots in the U.S. Yet, blood clots are often preventable and can be safely treated when caught in time.
- Less than 6% of Americans know what blood clots are and how to prevent them, yet they affect as many as 900,000 Americans every year.
- Every six minutes in the U.S., someone dies of a blood clot, or 274 people per day.
- The overall incidence of venous blood clots is up to 60% higher in Black patients compared to white patients.
- A blood clot in the lung is one of the most common causes of pregnancy-related death in the U.S.
- Blood clots are the second leading cause of death in cancer patients, aside from cancer itself.
How did Blood Clot Awareness Month start?
In 2003, while covering the war in Iraq for NBC News, journalist David Bloom died of a blood clot that formed in his leg and traveled to his lungs.
In memory of Bloom, a U.S. Senate bill in 2005, sponsored by Arlen Specter (R-PA), declared March Deep Vein Thrombosis Awareness Month.
In 2009, Representatives Lois Capps (D-CA) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) came together in an bipartisan effort to reinforce March as a time to focus on blood clots. Capps’ husband Walter died of a pulmonary embolism (PE) in 2006, and a friend and mentor of McMorris Rodgers, Rep. Jennifer Dunn, died of a PE in 2007.
How has NBCA commemorated BCAM in past years?
How can I request materials for my awareness event?
If you’re planning an awareness event and would like to request print or promotional materials, kindly complete this form:
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