The most precious commodity

The South African National Blood Service had June as their blood donation awareness month and the Springs branch, located in the Avenues shopping centre did their bit to help on June 14.
Donor attendant Antoinette Heine says the Springs branch had a mobile clinic in the centre of the Avenues shopping centre as well as the clinic in their shop.
” We did quite well. We had 127 units for the day which is nice but there is always a shortage of blood.”
She says that even though they did well on the day, the number of donors they get has decreased a lot over the years.
“We definitely need youngsters from the age of 16 years old. It is important for the younger generation to donate to replace the older generation who are no longer able to donate blood.”
The SANBS need all kinds of blood, with O negative being the most in need, as it can give to all other blood types.
“O positive is also good, because it can give to all other positive blood types. But O negative can only receive O negative, so we are always looking for the O type to be donated,” says Antoinette.
So, if group A blood is not in stock, group O blood will be used, but they try to keep all blood types in stock as often as they can.
In order to donate blood, the donor needs to weight 50kg or more and can only donate once every two months. This is only to give your body enough time to replace the blood that was taken.
“There are two things that must be done by the donor before they donate blood. You have to know your HIV status and you have to have eaten properly before you donate,” says Antoinette.
“Our focus is on the young people,” she says.
“We have a thing called the Club 25, in which we give a each person who joins the club and gives blood for the first time a first donor gift. If you donate four times a year, we give you a commitment gift, which is different every year. This is to show our appreciation and encourage people to keep donating.”
You can donate from the age of 16 up until any age, as long as you are still healthy. You can be 80 years old and still donating. But you cannot start donating if you are over the age of 65.
“We have mobile blood donating clinics that we send out to schools, companies and factories. We phone the donors to remind them that they it’s their time to donate, that two months has passed, just to try to keep people coming back and not donate blood only once,” says Antoinette.
The SANBS does functions for people who are about to donate for the 50th, 75th, 100th, 125th time and so on. They do this just to say thank you for the donor’s commitment to giving blood.
If the person coming to donate is on any form of chronic medication, they first need a letter fromt the doctor granting permission.
“If someone has a new tattoo or piercing, they cannot donate for four months as a precaution of the blood being contaminated,” Antoinette says.
If you have the flu or are temporarily sick and are on antibiotics you cannot donate blood for the simple reason that the person who gets your blood may be allergic to the antibiotics that you were taking at the time you gave blood.
The blood donated by people goes to patients undergoing surgical operations, patients with cancer or leukaemia, children with severe anaemia, accident victims and some women to treat haemorrhage as a complication of pregnancy.
“We are always trying to get more donors,” says Antoinette.
If you would like to donate or are looking for more information, you can contact the Springs branch of the SANBS at 011 362 2282.