Duane Hicks
While it just missed its target by a few donations, the two-day blood donor clinic held Monday and Tuesday at Fort Frances High School nonetheless was deemed a success by Canadian Blood Services.
The clinic saw a two-day total of 290 donors give 231 units of blood, falling short of CBS’ goal of 240 units (a total of 109 donors gave 87 units on Monday while 181 gave 144 units on Tuesday).
“While we were short by a few units on Day 1 of the clinic at Fort High, we collected our target of 144 units of blood on Day 2, which is fantastic,” CBS community development co-ordinator Mike Choi noted yesterday.
“These generous donations from the community of Fort Frances will go straight to our lab facility in Winnipeg to undergo rigorous testing for infectious diseases before being sent out to hospitals to give to patients in need,” he added.
This was the second time CBS was here in the past two months.
“While our clinic in August did quite well, this October’s blood donor clinic was even more of a successful,” said Choi.
“And I’d like to thank all community members in Fort Frances for offering their time to roll up their sleeves and give.”
CBS also was pleased that a call-out for young new donors was answered.
“I’d also like to recognize our enthusiastic group of students from the high school who came out to donate blood, most of them for the first time,” noted Choi.
“As our existing and dedicated donor base is aging, they may come to rely on the blood system themselves, and this is why we must focus on educating our youth on the benefits of donating blood,” he remarked.
“This year, 5,000 new donors are needed in Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba to keep up with the changing trends of our donors,” Choi stressed.
The next CBS blood donor clinic here will be held Aug. 18-19, 2014 at Fort High.
Make an appointment to donate blood by booking online at www.blood.ca or by calling 1-888-2 DONATE (1-888-236-6283).
