Watch above: Canadian Blood Services is looking for donors to deal with a blood shortage but not everyone is able to give the gift of life
SASKATOON – Canadian Blood Services is seeing its biggest shortage of donations in six years. High demand and low contributions has the non-profit organization pleading nationwide for help.
“Our goal is 23,000 units which is eight days on hand nationally, we’re sitting about 18,000 units,” said Judy Jones, an associate director with Canadian Blood Services .
“In October alone, we have about 3,000 open appointments in Saskatchewan.”
While the organization encourages people from coast to coast to give, restrictions continue to hold back a number of men.
Joe Wickenhauser would like to give but he can’t and hasn’t been able to for years.
“Canadian Blood Services did follow up and they were calling me, they were sending me letters asking me to donate blood and it was really uncomfortable because I felt like I had to be honest with them and I said ‘I’m gay’,” said Wickenhauser.
Last year, Canadian Blood Services lifted its lifetime ban on blood donations on gay men but they have to be celibate for five years before giving.
“To single out one group as being more dangerous than others, what it does is it continues to set, continues the idea that somehow gay men are more susceptible, which is not true,” said Rachel Loewen Walker, executive director of the Avenue Community Centre in Saskatoon, which has its own testing clinic.
Even sexually active men who test negative for HIV or STI’s cannot donate.
“I think there’s a lot of people within the queer community that would donate blood and it’s not just gay men who have sex with men, it’s also allies a lot of lesbians who don’t donate in solidarity with gay men who are sort of banned from donating due to a discriminatory policy,” said Wickenhauser.
While the United States remains one of a number of countries with a lifetime blood donation ban for gay men, Sweden, Australia and the U.K. have donor deferrals of 12 months while Italy does not have a ban.
Before being lifted in 2013, Canadian Blood Services had placed a lifetime ban on donations from gay men in 1977.
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