The two-day Canadian Blood Services donor clinic at Fort Frances High School is off to a good start, with a total of 158 donors showing up Wednesday to give the “gift of life.”
“We had 158 donors [Wednesday] and 138 units [donated], which was exactly what we [were] hoping for,” said CBS spokesperson Kim Horne. “Today [Thursday] we’re hoping for about 200 donors.”
CBS is hoping for a total of 330 units of blood donated over the two days.
“We always look at our appointments booked before we go out for the week, and they looked fairly good,” noted Horne. “But we always welcome walk-ins for those who can’t make it to their appointment.”
While Horne said it’s too late to make appointments for Thursday’s blood donor clinic, which runs until 3 p.m. and again from 5-8:30 p.m. in the Fort High gym, those wanting to give blood should come out anyway.
“The person at the door will know whether or not it’s too busy to accept a walk-in, and they’ll let the person know if they can come back in an hour or if we’ll take you right away,” she explained.
The spring and fall blood donor clinics held here last year saw 795 donors give a total of 694 units.
CBS is a national, not-for-profit charitable organization that manages the blood supply in all provinces and territories outside of Quebec, and also oversees the Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry.
It operates 41 permanent collection sites and more than 19,000 donor clinics annually. The provincial and territorial ministers of health provide operational funding to Canadian Blood Services.
The federal government, through Health Canada, is responsible for regulating the blood system.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
