Bill Alston proudly rolled up his sleeve to give his 118th donation to Canadian Blood Services. This donation was a bit different, this time he donated plasma.
“There is absolutely no discomfort in donating plasma and it was a wonderful opportunity to go there this morning and kind of kick off the centre,” said Alston
The blood donor clinic in Lethbridge closed in September, now just before Christmas, a new plasma centre officially opened on Tuesday.
“Right now the need in Canada is about four times greater than what we are currently collecting for plasma, so Lethbridge was selected as one of three sites in Canada to open a plasma only centre,” said Brenna Scott, the business development manager at Canadian Blood Services in Lethbridge.
Plasma is a protein-rich liquid in blood that helps other blood components circulate throughout the body.
Scott said the donation process is very similar to before, it just takes about 20 minutes longer, “It spins in a machine really quickly beside the donor called a PCS2 machine, the centrifuge in the middle of the machine spins the plasma actually out of your blood donation which collects in a bottle in front of the machine and then the rest of the blood, so your red blood cells your platelets are all returned to the donor.”
Alston is encouraging other southern Albertans to give plasma donation a try.
“I think they opened it here because of this southern Alberta volunteerism and service-oriented culture.”
Plasma donations can be made more frequently than blood donations, so Canadian Blood Services is hoping Lethbridge can help fill the quickly growing need for plasma.
“Because you are able to get those red blood cells and platelets back, donors are able to donate a lot more frequently so men can donate every seven days, and females every 14 days,” added Scott.
The centre is now booking into January. You can visit the Canadian Blood Services website, or call 1-888-To-Donate to make an appointment.
People who wish to continue with regular blood donations must now travel to Calgary.