Albertans urged to give blood

The need for blood never takes a holiday and that’s why Canadian Blood Services is sending out the call for more donors once again.

“In order to keep up with anticipated hospital need, Alberta alone needs to recruit 1,200 new donors a month,” explained Deb Steele-Kretschmer, communications representative at the Edmonton branch.

“We’re asking Albertans to capture the holiday season’s true spirit by becoming a miracle worker and donating blood. It costs you nothing and it’ll give someone a holiday miracle.”

To help out with its annual campaign, the agency enlisted some familiar faces to the cause: St. Albert’s Carrie Kuzik and her eight-year-old son, Hunter. They were at the agency’s Edmonton headquarters on Wednesday afternoon to thank the many donors at the busy facility and encourage new ones at the same time.

The Kuziks were handing out candy canes with little cards that named the recipients as “Miracle Workers.” It might have been the closest that Hunter had ever gotten to any of the dozens of people who have given him blood.

He has Diamond Blackfan Anemia, a condition in which his bone marrow doesn’t produce normal amounts of red blood cells, leaving his body starving for oxygen. Only a few dozen new cases are diagnosed in North America each year.

The boy’s treatment includes transfusions of fresh blood every three weeks and chelation therapy every night to remove excess iron. In order to survive, this regime will continue for the rest of his life. Next week he gets transfusion number 144.

During the holiday season, the need for new donors grows, not because of a higher demand for blood and blood products, but because the supply gets lower.

The agency expects a shortfall of 4,000 donors and is hoping to bring in 15,000 units of blood before January 2, 2013.

When asked if it gets any easier to get people to consider making donations, Carrie said no.

“I definitely think it’s a challenge every single time,” she said. “Because I’m so close to the situation, donating blood is an easy decision. Trying to get other people to do it, especially people who haven’t donated before … it’s very difficult for them to take that step. I feel it should be black and white, but it’s not for everyone.”

She added that people sometimes don’t understand the process that often takes about an hour, mostly for the screening.

“It’s not as big as people think that it is. I think, hopefully, along the road it will be easier to get people to donate,” she said.

As she and Hunter interacted with donors, a television screen overhead offered reasons why donating blood is the perfect holiday gift. It suggests some goofy reasons like “Nobody will ever try to exchange your gift” and “wrapping is not an issue – Canadian Blood Services provides the gift bags.”

There’s also a serious reason at the end.

“By giving blood, you could give someone else the gift money can’t buy … time. To a hospital patient in need, time is everything – time with family and friends and time to live and time to love.”