NZ Blood Service collecting in Whangarei next week

Steve Macmillan donated blood to the NZ Blood Service with mobile co-ordinantor Tania Hitchcock, at Forum North, Whangarei last December The Blood Service will be back again next week.

It's not the most conventional Christmas present, but the New Zealand Blood Service is in Whangarei next week asking people to give a little blood for the festive season.

The Blood Service has about 110,000 blood donors on its database nationally and about 42,000 people a year receive blood products.

Every year around 28,000 drop off the donor registry.

The service's collection will be at Forum North, Whangarei, on Monday from 12pm to 5pm; Tuesday from 10am to 4pm and Wednesday from 12pm to 4pm.

It will then be at the Northland Cricket Association, on Okara Dr, from 12pm to 6pm on Thursday and 8am to 12pm on Friday.

As of May 31, there were 2416 active donors in Northland - people who have given blood in the past two years.

The number of donors has been decreasing - in 2014 there were 3146 - but this year's figure is up on last year's 2193.

Each person donates an average of 470ml which is separated into red blood cells, platelets, blood clotting factors, plasma, anti-D, immunoglobin, globulins and several pharmaceutical components.

About 2.75 per cent of the processed blood goes to Whangarei Hospital's blood bank. That works out to about 3086 units of donated blood in the past year.

The Blood Service also oversees accreditation of blood taking and testing, and blood banking at hospitals. In those hospital labs, blood products are tested pre-transfusion and matched to each individual patient.

People can register to be a donor by calling 0800 448325 or at www.nzblood.co.nz.