National Blood Donor Week: Maitland Donor Centre celebrates its donors and calls for more

Aberglasslyn's Matt Farr-Forrest is one of those generous people being recognised this National Blood Donor Week (June 12 to 18) for giving the life-saving gift of blood and plasma.

For the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, National Blood Donor Week is an opportunity to thank blood and plasma donors for their 1.6 million life-saving donations over the past 12 months, and to highlight the ongoing need for more donors.

One in three Australians will need donated blood at some point, but just one in 30 actually get themselves into the blood donation chair.

Maitland Donor Centre needs an extra 3533 donors this year to meet demand.

Mr Farr-Forrest said he started giving blood because he could need it one day.

"I work in construction and I have a motorbike, so if there's going to be an accident I'm probably going to need blood," he said.

He donates as part of his workplace team, the John Holland Group, which has made it onto the team leaderboard at the Maitland Donor Centre.

Leading the tally at Maitland for 2023 are teams Poppy Grace (100 donations), University of Newcastle (84 donations), Royal Australian Air Force (74 donations), Ade's Rainbow Sunshine Team (56 donation) and Maitland Rugby Club (44 donations).

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Mr Farr-Forrest has been donating for just over a year now, and said if he has a workmate who is apprehensive about giving blood he tells them it's not as bad as they think it will be.

"Face your fears," he said.

Lifeblood spokesperson Brian Bruce said National Blood Donor Week is all about recognising donors and thanking them for the support.

"We're always in need of new blood donors," he said.

"We need a new donor every two minutes in Australia, especially in the winter cough, cold and flu season.

"At the moment we have 40 per cent of people cancelling each day."

Mr Bruce said there are more than 500,000 active donors in Australia, but 14.5 million people are eligible to donate.

If someone was feeling nervous about donating, Mr Bruce said he would tell them to team up with a friend and come together.

"The nurses here are professionals, they can help if you let them know you're a bit nervous," he said.

"One of the best things about being a blood donor is when you donate you'll get a text message that tells you where your blood is being used."

For National Blood Donor Week, Lifeblood has teamed up with Australian-based illustration brand Min Pin to create a limited-edition bandage, which will be rolled onto the arms of donors who donate at Lifeblood donor centres in June.