Regular plasma donor Nicholas Page donating at the Tauranga donor centre. Photo / NZ Blood Service
Regular plasma donor Nicholas Page donating at the Tauranga donor centre. Photo / NZ Blood Service
When Nicholas Page first started working at Rotorua Hospital as a trainee medical laboratory scientist at age 18, he quickly learned how valuable blood donations were.
He said he spent “years” working in transfusion laboratories, “dishing out the product left, right, and centre in the small hours of the morning because the person in the theatre is bleeding everywhere”.
His career has been the main inspiration for becoming a regular donor.
Now 54, Page has made about 85 blood and plasma donations throughout his life.
“It just was natural to actually give my arm and my blood to help fill the bank.”
Next week is National Blood Donor Week which encourages people to join the New Zealand Blood Service’s (NZBS) lifesaving community, and to thank existing donors such as Page.
An event will take place at the recently opened $2.4 million NZBS centre on Cameron Road in Tauranga on August 15 where people can hear from experts and learn more about becoming a blood and plasma donor.
When blood is needed
Page told the Bay of Plenty Times he moved from Rotorua to Tauranga in the early 1990s and worked at Tauranga Hospital’s transfusion laboratory.
Page said the most common situations in hospitals where people needed blood donations were car accidents, traumas such as stabbings, obstetric complications, internal bleeds, ruptured aneurysms, and gastrointestinal bleeds.
Page became a regular whole-blood donor in 1988, donating about three times per year.
However, he eventually started suffering from sport-induced anaemia after donating.
“I had a couple of spells where I had to stop donating for sort of a year at a time, go on iron pills, it just got a little bit complicated.”
That was one of the reasons he became a regular plasma donor about three years ago.
“I wasn’t contributing potentially as much as I would have liked.”
Nicholas Page has donated blood and plasma about 85 times.
He donated plasma every three to four weeks.
Blood donations took 45 minutes to an hour and a plasma donation about 90 minutes, he said.
Page – who now works in general practice for the Western Bay of Plenty Primary Health Organisation – said donating was “pain-free” after the initial “intense” and “quick prick” of the needle.
“The team at the blood service are amazing … if you want that feel-good community spirit and you’ve got a bit of time, and you want to make a difference to someone’s life who’s really going to be in need, it’s such a cool thing to do.”
New Zealand Blood Service donor relations team leader Rachel Bowman said the Bay of Plenty had more than 3000 active donors, but it needed more to keep up with the rising demand for local blood and blood products.
Every week, 290 donations were needed in Tauranga.
One blood donation could save up to three lives while a plasma donation could be made into 11 different lifesaving products.
Plasma is the liquid component of the blood and a vital part of many people’s treatments for cancer, autoimmune diseases and other conditions.
Demand for plasma has risen by more than 30% in the last three years and is projected to grow by 50% in the next three years.
The rise in plasma demand is primarily due to the increased need for patients with autoimmune disorders who use IVIg products (concentrated solutions of antibodies).
The Blood Service needed to collect more than 2100 plasma donations every week to keep up with demand. On average it was short about 250 donations per week.
Plasma donation takes about 90 minutes. Red cells and platelets are returned to the donor and only the plasma component is kept. People can donate plasma every two weeks.
People who would like to register their attendance for Thursday’s event can email Hannah.paul@nzblood.co.nz
For information about how to book an appointment to donate blood, visit the NZ Blood website.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
