Call for new donors in Wagga on World Blood Donor Day

But there is a way Wagga residents can save a life every fortnight, while watching TV and drinking a milkshake.

June 14 is World Blood Donor Day, and Red Cross Lifeblood is calling for 200 new blood and plasma donors to help fill gaps left by regular donors that are unable to give during flu season.

Despite Australia's population increasing by more than 3 million in the past decade, the number of blood donors has barely moved.

This means stocks of blood products, while relatively good at the moment, are extremely fragile. One flu or COVID outbreak could deplete stores by keeping regular donors at home.

Wagga Red Cross receives about 12,500 donations a year from around 3500 donors. Demand rises in the winter because flu, and now COVID, prevent regular donors from giving while they are sick.

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Neil Wright from the Red Cross Lifeblood Centre in Wagga said giving blood is a way of giving back to the community that involves almost no commitment.

"It's only an hour of your time, and you'll feel so good about yourself because you've given to the community for free," he said.

"It's something you don't need. You produce it all the time - you won't even miss it.

"You can make red cells, platelets and plasma out of whole blood donations, and out of a plasma donation you can make 17 or 18 different products."

Maree Bourne has donated blood 31 times. She was attracted to this form of volunteering because it's low effort and high impact.

"I'd like to do volunteer work, but because I work myself it's just some little thing I can do before I retire and can do something else to help people out," she said.

"Every two weeks you can give plasma ... it's for cancer patients mainly.

"I love coming - it's a real social event ... I don't have a lunch hour, so I come for the milkshake."

Mr Wright said National Blood Donor Week was a chance for the Red Cross to show its appreciation for donors like Ms Bourne.

With eligibility expanding, there are a lot of people who can now give blood. In 2022, rules around patients at risk of carrying Mad Cow Disease have been lifted. This allows people who were in the United Kingdom between 1980 and 1996 to give blood - a right they were once denied.

The Leukaemia Foundation has joined forces with Red Cross Lifeblood to urge people to roll up their sleeves.

Leukaemia Foundation chief executive Chris Tanti said one third of all red blood cell donations nationally go to cancer patients and increasing the number of Australians donating by a mere 1.5 per cent would make a huge difference.

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