The holiday season is officially over, and with that, Canadian Blood Services is asking for your help to fill open appointment slots for the month of January.
At the Lethbridge centre, there are still 517 open appointments that need to be filled.
“There are two days of specific concern for us,” said Belinda Tomiyama, Canadian Blood Services’ territory manager for Lethbridge. “One is Jan. 23 and one is Jan. 24… each of those days still has 67 open appointments for that day.”
The clinic has about 100 appointments to fill each day, which means slightly more than half of the open spots on those days still need to be filled.
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“One of the biggest things to remember is that only four per cent of the Canadian population supports 100 per cent of the patient need,” Tomiyama said on Thursday. “There are not enough Canadians donating.
“You need more people to come forward and start donating blood.”
However, over the December period, southern Albertans exceeded the usual donation numbers.
“The citizens of Lethbridge and surrounding areas supported Canadian Blood Services in Lethbridge tremendously,” Tomiyama exclaimed. “We actually over-collected 100 units here at the Lethbridge donor centre.”
Tomiyama said the Lethbridge centre relies on group donations and in December, Coaldale residents helped fill many of the clinic’s open slots thanks to a local campaign.
Officials are asking residents to contact them, either online by visiting www.blood.ca or by phone at 1-888-2-DONATE to book appointments for the month of January.
If you can’t make your appointment, officials ask people to reschedule rather than cancel.