Canadian Blood Centre in Sudbury has closed its doors

SUDBURY -- The closure of Sudbury's Canadian Blood Services centre will make room for the new state-of-the-art plasma donor centre, which will be opening later this year.

Officials with Canadian Blood Services say the new facility will be the next big step in supporting Canadian patients. They say when people come to donate blood, only the plasma will be extracted. 

"Donors have plasma within their system and so when they come in to donate, we are only going to be utilizing the plasma within their blood donation. We’ll use that and make it into plasma medicines to help support many patients that have a lot of neurological or immune deficiencies or many different types of ways that we're using this plasma protein products," says Judy Jones, of Canadian Blood Services.

The new plasma donor centre will be the first of three in Canada. 

Officials say the plan is for Sudbury’s location to open in August. Lethbridge will be the second location and it will be opening in the fall, and Kelowna’s facility will be opening its doors in 2021. 

Even though the Sudbury location is closing Friday, donors say they won’t stop giving blood and are looking forward to the new location opening. 

"I am kind of excited to hear about what they’re going to be doing at the other location and that I’ll be able to donate more often than this location. So, yeah, I will be making appointments as soon as they open," said Anna Zwolak, who has been donating blood for 11 years. 

"My bloods free, so why not give it out if it’s free? Whatever they take out, my body is going to replenish it. I’ll probably go maybe every two months or three months so that your body can accumulate the plasma back into your body," said Ray Huard, who has been donating blood since 1974. 

Officials with the local blood donor centre say in 2019, more than 13,000 people rolled up their sleeves. 

"I just want to thank the entire Sudbury community, all the surrounding communities, all of our donors, supporters, partners for life. We really appreciate everything you’ve done for the whole blood program here in Sudbury. Canada’s lifeline appreciates it," said Jenny Fortin, of Canadian Blood Services. 

Plasma donors are now able to book appointments and will officially be able to donate starting on August 11.