Blood donors are always needed, particularly now, as restrictions tighten on who is eligible to give. Dr Muiris Houston reports.
It's 10 minutes before opening time, but the blood donation clinic at Commercial Rowing Club in Galway is already buzzing. Four rows of potential donors are queuing to register with the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.
Regular donors, who are processed quickly thanks to a mobile computer system, are having their blood counts checked to ensure they are not anaemic. One of the donation couches already has a donor lying on it; an attendant is helping one of the nurses to find a vein before starting to collect the blood.
In another corner the refreshment section is awaiting its first customer. As well as biscuits and minerals the traditional complimentary bottles of stout are still available. Two screened-off areas are set up nearby for nurses to interview first-time donors, who are filling in questionnaires.
Restrictions on giving blood have become more extensive. Concerns about the transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of BSE, mean nobody who lived in Britain for more than five years between 1980 and 1996 can give blood.
Unsurprisingly, much of the questionnaire deals with issues surrounding HIV, AIDS and hepatitis B and C. But did you know the transfusion service cannot accept blood for a year after someone snorts cocaine? Or that if you have had acupuncture within the past 12 months from anybody other than a registered nurse, doctor or physiotherapist, you will be politely turned away?
Foreign travel may also hinder your plans to donate blood, albeit temporarily. A recent trip to the US, Mexico or Canada, for example, means you will be asked to defer giving blood for a month, because of West Nile virus, a mosquito-borne disease that is gradually spreading throughout North America.
The temporary ban is to ensure that a donor does not inadvertently transmit the virus to a recipient of blood products.
Another question relates to travel in areas where malaria is endemic. Again, you will be asked to defer your donation if you have recently visited parts of Asia, South America or Australia.
The upper age limit for blood donation, at 70, hasn't changed. Regular donors over 67 should bring a letter from their GPs, confirming they are fit to donate. If you are aged 60 to 67 but have not donated during the previous five years, your offer will be declined.
Back in Galway, a regular donor is checked in on the computer; he has come to the clinic three times a year since 1965. The Tuam-based donor team, under the direction of area organiser Aisling O'Brien, is busy. As part of a major reorganisation, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service has set up regional units in Carlow, Ardee, Limerick and Tuam. Regionalisation has helped to stabilise levels of donation.
Supply and demand for blood in the Republic are delicately balanced, however. Last year 146,000 people had their donations accepted by the service. But with an ongoing demand for 3,000 donations a week, there are times when demand outstrips supply.
"Supplies have been tight this winter," the service's medical director, Dr William Murphy, says. "The last time we had to cancel operations because of a shortage of blood was two years ago, but by increasing call-ups locally we have avoided recent disruption."
Murphy says the tightest months are January and August, because of reduced donation and increased demand.
As restrictions for accepting donations widen, the numbers deferred or rejected increase. According to Murphy, one in five donors is turned away, with an increasing number deferred because of recent travel. The hepatitis C and anti-D scandal, however, is no longer an issue with donors, he says. "But some of our long-term donors have lapsed and, understandably, people have less time to give to donate in a fast-paced world."
There is a particular demand for platelets, which, with red cells and white cells, make up the key components of blood. Because of advances in treatment, patients with leukaemia, lymphoma and other cancers need regular platelet transfusion. But it takes four donations to prepare a single therapeutic dose of platelets.
As a result a selected group of donors provide platelet-only donations. The process, known as apheresis, involves extracting platelets from the donor's blood before returning the remaining components to the donor. This is a better and purer product, especially suitable for patients undergoing chemotherapy.
One in four of us will need a blood transfusion or blood product in our lifetime. "We want people who haven't considered donating to see the value of coming forward," Kieran Healy, the organisation's donor services manager, says. "We also need to encourage people to become regular donors after their initial act of altruism."
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service received 5,706 platelet-specific donations last year. It badly needs more donors for the panel it has put together for this specialised form of blood donation.
With 1,300 people on the panel at present, Dr Murphy says they urgently need to expand this to 2,500-3,000 people, who would make one or two donations a year. "The ideal candidate is male, weighs in excess of 11 stone and has never had a blood transfusion," he says.
But all potential donors are welcome. Whether you have lapsed after donating in the past or have never given blood before, make a belated New Year's resolution to drop into a donation clinic. Your generosity could help save someone's life.