Donor Newsletter
Life is our quarterly newsletter. It's produced by local donor centre staff for your local community. Below is a snapshot of news from across the country - so, next time you're in centre ask for a copy of your local 'life' newsletter.
Life - National news
Beautiful babies saved by donors
If you want proof of the extraordinary gift that blood donation is, look no further than the gorgeous 
, who wouldn’t be here today without your donations.
Jocelyn and Mackenzie were born at 26 weeks and spent the first few weeks of their life in hospital. Each baby weighed just under a kilogram at birth and needed blood transfusions and operations to survive.
They are now healthy eight-month-olds and parents Tracy and David are eternally grateful to the blood donors who gave their babies a new lease of life.
David just made his first donation, and perhaps when the twins are eligible 16 years from now, they too will become blood donors.
“I want to say thank you to all blood donors. We have two wonderfully happy and healthy babies who are loved more than they could possibly know,” Mum Tracy said.
“Please encourage your family, friends and colleagues to donate because one donation can save three lives, lives like those of our beautiful babies.”
Life - SA News
State-of-the-art blood donor centre opens in Noarlunga
Blood donors in Adelaide’s southern suburbs now have access to a brand new, state-of-the-art facility in which to donate.
South Australia’s Minister for Health and Minister for Southern Suburbs, the Hon. John Hill MP, officially opened the Onkaparinga Blood Donor Centre recently.
The new centre at 12-18 David Witton Drive in Noarlunga replaces the service that has operated out of the Noarlunga Health Services building for the past eight years.
Regular blood donations, along with plasma and platelet donations, are being collected at the new centre. Donors now have greater flexibility with their appointment times, with opening hours from 7.30am to 7pm weekdays and one Saturday from 8am to 2pm every month.
Operations Manager for South Australia, Greg Wilkie, said that with demand for plasma set to double in the next decade, “it’s fantastic that we now have longer opening hours in Noarlunga to collect plasma”.
Life - VIC/TAS News
Nova 100 Blood Donors
Dave Hughes and Dylan Lewis are household names. Both can be heard on Nova 100 during the week, and have regular television gigs.
However, Hughesy and Dylan have another life aside from their high profile jobs. As often as they can, they put aside an hour of their time to save lives.
Hughesy has been donating whole blood for several years. Dylan has just changed to giving plasma and is amazed at how easy it is to do.
Dave and Dylan are both new dads and admit that being a parent makes giving blood more important than ever. They agree that donating blood is one of the most important things people can do. Dylan has made it his mission to encourage as many new donors as possible from Nova 100 to give blood
Life - WA/NT News
Dedicated volunteers drive donations
National Volunteer Week (May 10-16) is the largest celebration of volunteers and volunteerism in Australia. The week highlights the role of volunteers in our communities and provides an opportunity to say thank you to the thousands of Australians who selflessly volunteer.
At the Blood Service volunteer staff fill a variety of roles. Ian Philip, from WA, is one of the many dedicated volunteers who, on a weekly basis, drives donor groups to and from the Perth CBD Donor Centre. But Mr Philip’s involvement goes beyond being a volunteer driver.
He has volunteered for a number of media opportunities; one involved being the voice of our radio commercials with his grand daughter Jacqui, who received blood during surgery to remove a brain tumour when she was just seven years old.
After making 212 donations Ian retired from donating, but vowed to continue to support Australia’s blood supply by becoming a volunteer driver as soon as he retired from full-time work.
“I always planned on becoming a volunteer driver once I retired. I really believe in the work of the Blood Service and the difference blood donors make to countless lives,” he said.
Life - NSW
Running on Blood is back
The ‘Running on Blood’ campaign is back for the second year in a row. The campaign, which is supported by Blood Service ambassador and shark attack survivor Glenn Orgias, seeks to raise awareness of the importance of blood donations and encourages people to pledge to donate blood.
From the days after the attack Glenn promised to find a way to pay back all the blood he received and the Running on Blood campaign was created.
Last year the campaign was hugely successful, rallying over 200 runners for Team Glenn in the annual City2Surf fun run in Sydney. The campaign asked runners to collect pledges to donate blood instead of money and the team raised enough blood donations to save 2000 lives.
The 2010 campaign is set to be even bigger and better with the support of Bondi Rescue Lifeguard Tom Bunting and comedian Dave Hughes - both of whom will be running the race on Sunday 8 August.
To join ‘Team Glenn’ and help raise awareness of the Blood Service visit runningonblood.com.au.
Life - QLD
Mackay Schools Saves 3,000 Lives
A challenge among Mackay High School students has resulted in more than 1,000 blood donations from students at nine different schools –saving the lives of 3,000 people.
The annual Mackay Schools Blood Challenge sees year 11 and 12 students from various schools pitted against each other to give blood in hope of taking out the title for their school.
After a fierce competition, it was Mackay State High School who took out the title, with a whopping 74 per cent of the year 11 and 12 student body giving blood.
In total, 1,033 students from the nine schools donated blood throughout the year, which represents 14 per cent of the Mackay whole blood target.
The Schools Challenge provides great annual support to the Blood Service by helping encourage and educate youth about Australia’s need for blood and how as students, they can save lives.