Staff
One in every two Canadians either will need blood, or knows someone who will, yet only one Canadian in 60 currently donates blood.
District residents can help turn that statistic around next month when Canadian Blood Services holds its annual spring blood donor clinic in mid-April at Fort Frances High School.
Harvey Heather, community development co-ordinator for CBS, said Monday that more than 300 donors are needed for the two-day clinic, which will run from 4:30-8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12 and again from noon-3 p.m. and 5-8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 13.
Last April, the spring blood donor clinic saw a two-day total of 358 donors, who gave 307 units of blood to help up to 929 patients in hospitals in Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba.
CBS had set a two-day goal of 350 donors—or about 288 units—for the local clinic (the number of donors usually does not equal the number of units).
Interested donors can make an appointment prior to the two-day clinic by calling 1-888-2DONATE (1-888-236-6283) or by visiting www.blood.ca
If prospective donors, or active ones for that matter, want to know why it’s so important to donate blood, they should check out www.thankyourdonor.ca
This is a website where people who have received blood, either themselves or family members, have posted stories about how much they appreciate blood donors and why it was so important that blood was there for them when they needed it.
CBS looks after 91 hospitals in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.
It’s estimated that 75,000 new donors are needed this year in Canada.
Why do many Canadians say they do not donate blood? They have never been asked.
