Bay of Plenty blood donations: Pāpāmoa mother's plea as Omicron hits donations

Rata Campbell and her son Isaac Tai. Photo / Megan Wilson

Pāpāmoa mother Rata Campbell started giving blood again after her 3-year-old son got leukemia.

Isaac Tai was diagnosed with leukemia in September 2020. He started treatment at Starship Hospital where Campbell gave a general blood donation on-site.

While Isaac no longer needs blood transfusions, Campbell is now encouraging people to give blood as donations dry up "significantly" because of the Omicron outbreak, according to the New Zealand Blood Service.

The blood service has put out an "urgent call" for healthy eligible donors in the region to book an appointment to donate.

"You really literally never know when it's going to be a matter of life and death for you and someone you love," Campbell said.

Campbell said she used to give blood regularly but "reignited" it due to Tai having leukemia.

After his diagnosis, Campbell and husband, Marc Tai, spent the first two months of treatment at Starship hospital.

"He needed four transfusions in his first month of treatment."

She had also met other children with different types of leukemia and blood cancers who needed "10 times that" during their treatment.

Campbell said giving blood was "incredibly quick and easy" and being at hospitals so frequently "opens your eyes" to the need for blood donors.

"That's the tip of the iceberg of what we're dealing with. The need is huge and it's unpredictable when you'll need it.

"We never in a million years imagined we would need that support - blood to be available for a transfusion for our son.

"And people don't until they have that immediate need, but someone needs to help supply that and keep that there so when you do need it it's there.

"You really literally never know when it's going to be a matter of life and death for you and someone you love."

Rata Campbell is encouraging others to donate blood and says it is "incredibly quick and easy". Photo / Megan Wilson

Blood service team leader for donor relations Steve Dalgety said Covid had affected blood donations "significantly" in the Bay of Plenty.

Donations were down between 30 and 35 per cent, he said.

People were either sick with Omicron or were self-isolating because of their household or school being affected, he said.

Both people vaccinated and unvaccinated against Covid could give blood, but some venues required vaccine passes.

"That's probably compounded the issue as well."

Dalgety said the demand for blood from hospitals remained the same but there had been "a large reduction" in donors.

"If people are healthy and they can donate, then we really really do want to see them because there's always people that require the product and we need to continue to supply that product at the hospitals."

In a media release this week, New Zealand Blood Service said across the Bay of Plenty region, 700 donations were needed for the rest of March to meet current demand.

But in the next three weeks, only 67 per cent of appointment slots were filled and the service was seeing an increasing number of no-shows.

New Zealand Blood Service national marketing and communications manager Asuka Burge said: "We need healthy, eligible donors in the Bay of Plenty region to book an appointment to donate to help us ensure we can continue to have enough supply to meet demand.

"We also need people who cannot attend a scheduled appointment to either reschedule or cancel the appointment, in order to free up slots for other people who can donate."

• The Tauranga donor centre is at 154 Cameron Rd, Tauranga.

How to donate:

• To book an appointment, visit nzblood.co.nz, download the App, call 0800 448 325 or sign up to Facebook's blood donation tool to receive notifications about opportunities to donate blood near you.

• New donors are encouraged to find out if they are eligible at nzblood.co.nz and then book an appointment.

• Donors are asked to book an appointment to donate, rather than just turning up.

• Appointments help manage the social distancing and flow of people in donor centres at any given time and allow New Zealand Blood Service to forecast supply, ensuring it is collecting enough blood types and blood products.

Source: NZ Blood Service