ONE hundred more blood donors are needed in the Port Macquarie area by new year’s eve.
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The life saving donations will help bolster supplies for cancer patients, road trauma victims and emergency surgery patients.
Port Macquarie Blood Service Donor Centre manager Jarna Findlay owes her life to the generosity of blood donors.
She needed blood transfusions during a kidney and pancreas transplant at Westmead Hospital on Boxing Day in 2003.
Miss Findlay experienced renal failure as a complication of type one diabetes, and thanks to the life saving surgery, she is now well.
“I couldn’t have had the surgery without the blood,” the King Creek resident said.
She encouraged people to donate blood.
“I think giving in this manner is probably one of the best Christmas gifts you can give,” Miss Findlay said.
She said as a person who had received blood transfusions at this time, there were no words to describe the gratitude towards people who helped others in this way.
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is amid a Christmas and new year “blood blitz” to fill appointments at a time when regular donors are likely to take a holiday, leading to a drop off in blood stocks.
Community relations officer Carrie Skinner said many of the remaining appointments in Port Macquarie fell on Christmas eve and new year’s eve.
New processes had improved wait times, she said, and the Clarence Street centre welcomed new and lapsed blood donors.
To make an appointment call 13 14 95 or visit www.donateblood.com.au