Plasma donor Jacob Nielsen with Wagga Lifeblood staff Lisa Steele and Neil Wright marking International Plasma Awareness Week with a pint. Picture: Marguerite McKinnon.
It’s lifesaving liquid gold, and this week the world (and the Riverina) is marking a magic double: International Plasma Awareness Week and International Plasma Awareness Month, by calling for more donors to roll up their sleeves.
Plasma makes up more than half of our blood and carries red blood cells and platelets around the body. It’s also rich in proteins, antibodies, clotting factors, nutrients, and hormones.
Manager of Wagga’s Lifeblood Donor Centre Neil Wright said plasma had an astonishing range of benefits to health and wellbeing.
“They’re even looking at uses in Alzheimer’s and memory loss, and how they can use plasma proteins to re-stimulate the brain, so it’s an amazing product,” Neil said.
Plasma can help in 18 life-giving ways, such as treating serious burns, cancer, and haemophilia.
“Just for example, if a little boy who has haemophilia had a bleeding episode, they need about six vials of anti-hemophiliac factor to stop that bleeding episode. But to make one vial, it takes six plasma donors to make it,” Neil said.
In the Riverina alone, there are about 15 families that require support with haemophilia.
Australia needs 900 plasma donations each day to manage the need. Wagga is tasked to provide 40 to 50 plasma donations a day and make up 70 per cent of daily collections.
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“We used to never collect plasma in the regional areas,” Neil Wright said.
“But in the late mid-2000s, they rolled it out to all regional donor centres, and now here in Wagga, out of the 14 chairs that we have, 12 of them have a plasma machine, so that shows you the need,” he said.
Wagga builder Jacob Nielsen has donated blood and plasma more than 75 times. Picture: Marguerite McKinnon.
Wagga tradesman Jacob Neilsen, 28, has been donating since he turned 18, and recently marked 75 individual donations, a feat most donors don’t reach until they are much older.
“Mum and Dad always did it, and I thought it’s as easy as sitting down for 40 minutes, and get the milkshake. It’s a good thing to do,” Jacob said.
Jacob donates blood and plasma in a team challenge run by his dad, builder Jari Neilsen.
“In a nice way of putting it, he said, ‘You’re sacked if you don’t donate plasma or blood’, so it’s a good incentive,” Jacob said.
Lifeblood volunteer Therese Crouch has been making milkshakes for donors in Wagga for more than a decade. Picture: Marguerite McKinnon.
Therese Crouch has been a weekly volunteer at Redcross Lifeblood for over a decade and has made more milkshakes than she can count.
“It’s a happy place, all the staff are amazing, and I think that donors get a lot out of it because they know that they’re doing a good deed for people in need,” Therese said.
To book a plasma donation call 13 14 95, visit lifeblood, or download the Lifeblood app.
