To establish a Permanent Lifeblood Donation Centre in the Adelaide Hills
To establish a Permanent Lifeblood Donation Centre in the Adelaide Hills
The issue
As a resident in one of the fastest growing communities in South Australia, I am identifying the need to establish a Permanent Red Cross Lifeblood Donation Centre in the Adelaide Hills/Mount Barker Area.
Currently, we are only serviced by Pop-up Donor Centres for a week every 3 months in Mount Barker, Strathalbyn and Murray Bridge. As wonderful as it is to have these pop-up centres, appointments get booked out extremely quickly and are only suitable for whole-blood donations, not plasma, as the Apheresis machines used for plasma collection are too sensitive to be moved around to different locations.
The only places available for Plasma donations as well as whole blood are Regent Arcade in Adelaide, Modbury, Marion, Port Adelaide and Noarlunga. Given that a plasma donation appointment takes approximately one a half hours, and with a round trip to and from one of these centres taking up to 2 hours, not to mention the petrol involved to get there, it puts donations of this kind out of the realms of possibility for many donors to do so on a regular basis.
There are very few of us who can say that their lives have not been touched in some way with a family member or friend who has, or is currently requiring essential treatment for Cancer, a disease or an autoimmune condition. Many of these life-saving treatments, such as IVIG (immunoglobulin) infusions are only made possible by the gift of blood of thousands of generous donors. It takes the plasma of over 1000 donors to make a 1 years supply of IVIG for just 1 person - so making it possible for regular donors, and those wishing to give donating blood a go, to do so in a permanent location in the Adelaide Hills makes so much sense.
As the Lifeblood is funded by Australian Governments, it is my intention to take the results of this petition to the Red Cross, our local Members of Parliament, and the State Government to get them on board and make a Donor Centre possible. I am proud to say that we already have the support of Dan Cregan MP, who is such an incredible advocate for our community.
Your signature can help turn this hope into a reality - together we can make a difference.
With Hope and Thanks,
Tabitha
507
The issue
As a resident in one of the fastest growing communities in South Australia, I am identifying the need to establish a Permanent Red Cross Lifeblood Donation Centre in the Adelaide Hills/Mount Barker Area.
Currently, we are only serviced by Pop-up Donor Centres for a week every 3 months in Mount Barker, Strathalbyn and Murray Bridge. As wonderful as it is to have these pop-up centres, appointments get booked out extremely quickly and are only suitable for whole-blood donations, not plasma, as the Apheresis machines used for plasma collection are too sensitive to be moved around to different locations.
The only places available for Plasma donations as well as whole blood are Regent Arcade in Adelaide, Modbury, Marion, Port Adelaide and Noarlunga. Given that a plasma donation appointment takes approximately one a half hours, and with a round trip to and from one of these centres taking up to 2 hours, not to mention the petrol involved to get there, it puts donations of this kind out of the realms of possibility for many donors to do so on a regular basis.
There are very few of us who can say that their lives have not been touched in some way with a family member or friend who has, or is currently requiring essential treatment for Cancer, a disease or an autoimmune condition. Many of these life-saving treatments, such as IVIG (immunoglobulin) infusions are only made possible by the gift of blood of thousands of generous donors. It takes the plasma of over 1000 donors to make a 1 years supply of IVIG for just 1 person - so making it possible for regular donors, and those wishing to give donating blood a go, to do so in a permanent location in the Adelaide Hills makes so much sense.
As the Lifeblood is funded by Australian Governments, it is my intention to take the results of this petition to the Red Cross, our local Members of Parliament, and the State Government to get them on board and make a Donor Centre possible. I am proud to say that we already have the support of Dan Cregan MP, who is such an incredible advocate for our community.
Your signature can help turn this hope into a reality - together we can make a difference.
With Hope and Thanks,
Tabitha
507
Petition created on 25 September 2022