Blood donors lend a helping hand

Jon and Matt Grahame donate blood and plasma at the new Riverlink facility.

THE convenience of the new blood donor centre at Riverlink brought Jon Grahame and his son Matt back to donating blood after a break of a few years.

Jon reckons he's given more than 100 donations since he started giving blood about 20 years ago.

“It's just my way of helping,” he said.

“I know there's going to come a time when I or my family need it.

“I prefer to give plasma. They use the plasma for bone marrow transplants and it's usually little ones who need it.”

Mr Grahame says plasma can be given more often than whole blood, every fortnight compared with every three months.

“It takes 15 minutes to give blood and about an hour-and-a-half to give plasma,” he said.

This generous donor works three jobs, and still finds time to visit the blood service.

His son Matt welcomed the new Riverlink facility.

“There's a centre here I can come to whenever I want to,” he said.

“My body's fit and healthy so I can cope.”

In fact, more women donate blood in Australia than men.

With this in mind, the Blood Service is issuing a challenge to all men this Father's Day, to beat the girls.

It's a tall order – in the last year, there were 30,629 more female donors than male donors.

To make an appointment with the Ipswich Donor Centre, Red Cross Blood Service, Lowry Street, North Ipswich, call 13 14 95.