By Daryl Major

Local blood clinics held, as holiday season increases need

Dec 20, 2016 | 2:28 PM

NANAIMO – With the holiday season well underway, Canadian Blood Services is hoping people give the gift of life this year.

The agency has put out an urgent call for donors. Spokesperson Anne Chabert says there are two reasons for the pressing need.

“The first one is that we changed our deferrals for the hemoglobin level,” said Chabert. “Female donors that come in every two months to donate will now have to wait three months in between donations. So we will likely see a bit of a gap between that. And the second one is that our regular donors are just taking a week off or a couple of weeks off for the Christmas season.”

According to Chabert, a lot of people take it for granted that blood will be available in an emergency.

“You just go to the hospital and there it is. There’s a bag of blood, whenever you need it, free and it’s never questioned,” said Chabert. “But we do need the donors. In the Nanaimo region, we have about between 350 and 400 donors every week that we need to collect to just sustain our hospital needs.”

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The numbers show a very small pool of regular donors in the mid-island and Chabert notes there are a lot of people who could be making donations.

“Fifty per cent can donate — so that’s one in two. But actually if you see who donates, that’s only one in 60. So under three per cent of eligible Canadians donates blood.”

There are three clinics in the central island before Christmas. Tuesday Dec. 20 from 12-7 and again Wednesday from 11-6 at the Community and Conference Centre in Parksville.

On Thursday Dec. 22, there’s a clinic at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Ladysmith from 12:30-7:30. Chabert says drop-ins are always welcome.