Plasma donors desperately needed in the north and beyond

The Sudbury Plasma Donor Centre, which just celebrated its two-year anniversary, is not seeing the same number of donors come through its doors.

The number of donors of blood, plasma, and platelets across Canada is the lowest it’s been in 10 years.

Canadian Blood Services said it’s seen a steady decrease in donors since July 1, and there are 31,000 fewer donors than they have had in the last decade.

"So the need is great -- the need is now,” said Teri-Mai Armstrong, business development manager at Canadian Blood Services.

Armstrong said there are a variety of reasons why people are not donating as much during the summer months.

“No. 1, COVID was such a hard thing on so many organizations, Canadian Blood Services being the same," she said.

"People were falling ill, unable to come out, and told not to come out and now things are sort of post-COVID and people have no travel restrictions. They’re ready to go. So, really that’s a big part of it, too."

Armstrong said the recent national outage of telecoms systems caused them to lose many appointments.

"That hit us hard across the nation,” she said.

Armstrong said she is thankful for the Sudbury donors who come in on a regular basis.

One of those is Kevin Reed who said he tries to donate as often as he can and has just made his 60th plasma donation.

"I started when I was a teenager and it was something my parents did," he said.

"Since Sudbury converted into plasma donation, I’ve just continued along with Canadian Blood Services … I know I’ve seen the advertisements that there is a big shortage, but I think it’s just, it’s in you to give, so I just try to be a regular donor at all times."

Amanda Rousseau said she has donated blood multiple times over the years, but just decided to donate plasma for the first time.

"I used to donate blood, but I hadn’t done it for a while and then COVID hit and I had kind of gotten out of it again," Rousseau said.

"So, I had been hearing a little bit about it in the news and then I have a couple good friends who donate regularly, so it was a good reminder to come out and do my part."