Golden opportunity to save lives

Giving plasma is something Siobhan Regan, pictured with family dog Roxy, is happy to do. Photo: Supplied

Siobhan Regan is reminding her fellow Cantabrians of a golden opportunity during National Blood Donor Week this week.

The 23-year-old service adviser at Mitsubishi Motors Ashburton is a plasma donor, and would love to see others come on board as the New Zealand Blood Service struggles to meet demand.

Plasma is the gold-coloured liquid that makes up just over half of our blood. Used to treat up to 50 illnesses and for a wide range of life-saving treatments, plasma carries blood cells, water, proteins and clotting factors.

New Zealand Blood Service needs to collect more than 2600 plasma donations each week to meet demand, and every week falls about 250 donations short.

‘‘Giving plasma is an important thing to do, by me giving it, other people can live their lives,’’ Regan said.

Plasma donors can give every two to three weeks. This is more often than blood donations as the red blood cells and platelets are returned to the body during the giving the plasma donation process.

Regan said she has donated plasma several times over the last five years.

‘‘I would give more often but the mobile clinic that comes to Ashburton can’t take plasma, you have to go into Christchurch to do that,’’ Regan said.

‘‘It takes about an hour to give plasma. They take your blood and a machine spins it around and separates the plasma from the blood and your blood is returned to the body,’’ she said.

‘‘I know they need more donors to give plasma, it’s quick and painless to give.

‘‘The donating of blood or plasma hasn’t stopped me doing anything. I can continue to work and play rugby. On the day of donation they just suggest you don’t lift anything heavy,’’ Regan said.

Blood service acting chief executive Josh Bankers said the service referred to plasma as ‘‘liquid gold’’.

“It’s the gold we all carry with us in our blood, and for thousands of New Zealanders it can mean the difference between life and death.’’

In New Zealand, there are 17,435 plasma donors. Plasma collection targets projected to grow by a staggering 50 per cent in the next three years,

“In the next 12 months, we need 1500 more people to start donating plasma regularly. And by 2026 we are projecting we will need around 28,000 plasma donors in total to keep up with growth in demand.”