With someone in Australia needing blood every 18 seconds, Launceston and surrounding councils have initiated a competitive ladder for donations, so they urge us all to put Launceston on top.
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00:00 So what's really great about Launceston is that we've got about a regular donation of
00:06 about 2,000 people and a really great initiative that the City of Launceston has taken on is
00:12 a little bit of a competitive edge.
00:14 The local government have got their initiative throughout the last couple of months, I think
00:18 it's over a three month period, in which we get together as local government, as local
00:23 councils and we basically see how much we can donate and who can come out on top of
00:28 the ladder.
00:29 It's been going really well, we've been right up there in the last couple of years when
00:32 it comes to the donation ladder, so I'm really stoked to be here ambassading for it and to
00:39 ensure that Lonnie remains not just the greatest regional city of Australia and the world,
00:44 but also the most generous in giving for blood.
00:47 What's really important about donations is that we might not realise that in the statistics
00:51 about every 18 seconds someone in Australia requires blood.
00:56 So the more obviously that we can donate, the more we can be involved, and whether you
00:59 can or can't donate, it's about the advocacy around it as well, which is a part of what
01:03 we're doing with this initiative through local government, just raising awareness for if
01:06 you haven't thought about it, just at least starting that conversation and giving it a
01:11 go because it really is well needed and something that really literally saves lives.
01:17 Well, firstly you walk in, you're greeted by a very friendly team, we do complete a
01:22 pre-donation questionnaire, we then take you into one of our interview rooms to go through
01:26 your answers.
01:27 If you've been eligible, you come out onto the collection floor, you donate either whole
01:31 blood or plasma, you go through the process of the donation, we give you some post-donation
01:35 care, take the needle out and then you come over for a drink and a snack.
01:38 We're the only collectors of blood and blood products in Australia, so it's really vital
01:42 that we have people coming in and attending our centres nationwide and donating plasma
01:46 or whole blood as much as they can.
01:50 Both different components are used differently, so for our red cells and blood from blood
01:54 donations they're used in a lot of surgery, road trauma, that kind of thing.
01:58 Our plasma can be used to create different types of medications that help those potentially
02:02 with cancer, clotting disorders and that kind of thing, so lots and lots of different uses
02:07 for both our products.
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