Darwin’s ADF personnel roll up the sleeves to donate blood
With Lifeblood appealing for 100,000 new Australian blood donors, the Territory’s ADF community has ramped up inter-service rivalry, with soldiers, sailors and aviators rolling up their sleeves to see who can give the most.
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With medical experts calling for more blood donations, Darwin’s ADF community has started a friendly competition to see which service can give the most litres.
Since September, sailors, soldiers and aviators have dropped by Lifeblood Darwin Donor Centre in Casuarina to give blood as part of the Defence Blood Drive – an ADF-wide initiative aimed at bringing in more than 11,000 donations in the coming months.
Australian Red Cross Lifeblood relationship manager Zoe Ross said some dedicated donors had contributed hundreds of litres to the cause.
“We normally collect 470 mls, whereas with plasma donations we collect around 800 mls,” she said.
“We have some donors across the country who have given 600 or 700 times, it’s absolutely incredible.”
From cancer patients to making immunisations, Ms Ross said the country’s most vulnerable were in dire need of more blood.
“In Australia, one in three people need blood and only one in 30 give – it’s a remarkable difference,” she said.
“A blood donation has the power to save three lives and a plasma donation is used to go towards 18 different therapeutic products.
“The need for blood is rising, not just in the Territory and the country, but around the world.”
To illustrate Australia’s dependence on the small minority of donors, it is estimated three per cent of the population is providing blood for the entire country, according to research conducted by Lifeblood.
For 16 years, the ADF have striven to become the nation’s largest blood drive contributor, with sailors, soldiers and aviators encouraged to donate their healthy bloodstream by way of friendly competition: which service gives the most blood?
Warrant Officer Dennis Bentley understands the rivalry too well.
“It’s a bit of friendly competition where we all try and see who can give the most donations for the respective part of the organisation,” he told this masthead.
“We try and gee each other up and motivate our people to donate to see if they can lead for a region or nationally so that, hopefully, Navy comes out on top.”
For Warrant Officer Glenn Lamb, who transferred to the Australian Army from the UK, the opportunity to give blood was happily jumped on.
“It’s about giving something back to the community and putting yourself in a situation where you need somebody to give you blood – then you would want to do the same for them,” he said.
“Get up, get in that chair and give the blood.”
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Originally published as Darwin’s ADF personnel roll up the sleeves to donate blood
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