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By Alessia Proietti

Small sacrifice: large impact

‘Fill the Seats’ campaign by Canadian Blood Services begins in Red Deer this February

Feb 13, 2024 | 10:07 AM

The Canadian Blood Services (CBS) has a new campaign this February to increase donations, with Red Deerians sharing their own stories of how they wouldn’t be alive today without donors.

Partnering with BIG 105.5 radio station, rdnewsNOW, and Red Deer Polytechnic (RDP) Athletics, the “Fill the Seats” campaign aims to fill the remaining 526 appointments at the Red Deer Donor Centre before the end of the month and inspire new donors to become regulars throughout their life.

Shamus Neeson, Community Development Manager for CBS Red Deer, says that only 50 per cent of Canadians are eligible to donate blood and, of that half, only one in 81 people do. That totals just 1.23 per cent of the national population who donate blood to support all those in need across the country.

He says this is not sustainable, particularly during times of high need like holidays, long weekends, and in the summertime, with the burden falling on their small loyal donor base.

In January, he states the Red Deer donor centre needed 1,224 donations and collected 1,066 instead.

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“We’re not hitting 100 per cent in our Red Deer Donor Centre and that’s why we need to remind people that there is only one way to get blood to the patients and that’s by their donations. We can’t create blood and blood products artificially yet at this stage,” he said.

Neeson says the biggest reason people don’t donate is due to the fear of the unknown, particularly regarding needles. A typical rebuttal he uses to challenge perspectives is that everyone fears needles, especially a five-year-old child going through leukemia.

“Donating blood really isn’t the end of the world. As soon as you make that first blood donation, you realize really quickly, almost immediately, that you could’ve been doing this for many years,” he said.

He adds another assumption is that donating is time consuming.

However, he confirmed that the average time in a donor centre totals one hour, mostly comprised in the waiting room, with many at the Red Deer centre out in just 35 minutes. As men can donate six times in a year, adding up to three to six hours of time, he says this is a small sacrifice people can make to have a large impact.

He says thankfully, there has been a strong group of loyal donors in the city and surrounding municipalities.

“I think it says a lot. They [loyal donors] have realized that donating blood is very easy and they tend to be thinking more altruistic rather than ‘what’s in it for me’,” he said.

One local example of someone exemplifying this mentality is Penhold resident Josephine Michaluk, Guinness Book of World Records holder for most whole blood donated by a female.

READ: Penhold launches blood donor challenge in honour of World Record holder

With over 200 donations, Michaluk has been donating since 17 years old and continues now into her 70s.

Neeson says he hopes people are inspired by how much she has given of herself, and by those in the RDP Athletics department who will be sharing their stories of when they needed blood products and organs.

“When you hear the same message all the time from Canadian Blood Services, I think people just start tuning it out. But when they start hearing the same message from other sources, other friends of theirs, other colleagues of theirs, other coworkers, saying, ‘You know, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for blood donors, so if you haven’t donated blood I would strongly encourage you getting involved’, it also has a message involved that we are Canadians; we work together to help each other out,” he said.

Donors specifically with O-negative blood type are always in high demand as they are known as universal donors whose blood can be given to any patient. CBS says they are also looking for stem cell donors as over 75 per cent of those in need can’t find a match within their families.

Visit the Canadian Blood Services website, GiveBlood app, or call 1-888-2-DONATE to book an appointment at the local donor centre (5-5020 68 St.).

READ: Red Deer’s first responders compete against Calgary and Edmonton for most blood donations

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