Injecting enthusiasm for a lifesaving gift

Michele Kay-Sharman has to inject herself with a plasma-based product twice a week. Photo / Richard Robinson

The clink-clink of champagne flutes was absent when Michele Kay-Sharman's family and friends drank to mark a milestone in her medical treatment.

"I got everybody to have drinks using syringes. I drank a rum and Coke through a plastic syringe," says the 54-year-old medical social worker from Green Bay in Auckland.

She chose the unusual method because the party last week was to celebrate her thousandth home infusion of a blood product, derived from plasma, to treat a genetic condition called common variable immune deficiency.

Ms Kay-Sharman spoke to the Herald to promote World Blood Donor Day, which is today, but she felt admitted the celebratory drink didn't taste too good.

Her infusions involve inserting needles under the skin of her thighs or abdomen and having the blood product slowly pushed in by battery powered pumps. She has to do this twice a week.

She used to receive the treatment by intravenous transfusions in hospital. Doing it at home with subcutaneous injections is more convenient and less invasive.

Untreated, Ms Kay-Sharman's condition, which became apparent when she was a teenager, leaves her vulnerable to serious infections. A cold, for instance, easily leads to a chest infection or severe sinus infection. She has long since lost count of how many times she has been in hospital with infections.

The treatment has radically reduced the number and severity of infections, but she is still afflicted more than the average person.

"If you took those injections away from me, my life would be crap; I would be sick the whole time.

"Words can't describe the gratitude I feel for people giving their blood and their time, because it does make a massive difference."

She says the treatment enables her to work part-time and to serve on the board of the Immune Deficiencies Foundation.

Her son, Jason, aged 28, also has an immune disorder, although a slightly different one. He has intravenous transfusions, of a different blood product to his mother's treatment, every four to six weeks.

The New Zealand Blood Service says patients such as Ms Kay-Sharman and Mr Kay are the untold story of why blood donors are so important. It says World Blood Donor Day is an opportunity for it to thank people who donate blood and save lives.

"One blood donation has the potential to save up to three lives."

BLOOD NEEDED
* 42,000 people need blood or blood products each day in New Zealand.
* 60 per cent of the population may be eligible to donate blood, but only 4 per cent do so.
* The Blood Service wants more donors.
* To see if you are eligible to donate, and to make an appointment to give blood, phone 0800 GIVE BLOOD, or visit www.nzblood.co.nz.