Bouncing on his trampoline, Charlie Corbitt looks just like any energetic four-year-old, but just after he turned two his life hung in the balance after he collapsed with a brain infection.
His mother Sarah said when the toddler had a seizure he went completely limp.
"It was completely terrifying," Ms Corbitt said.
"Perth Children's Hospital took him for an MRI and a lumbar puncture, and determined that he had an enterovirus on his brain which had caused an injury and capsulitis.
Doctors diagnosed a rare genetic condition that leaves his body unprotected from common viruses and bacteria.
Charlie is on his way to leading a normal life with a regular infusion of an immunoglobulin treatment extracted from plasma donations which helps protect him.
Once a week Charlie's parents treat him at home, but he will never be cured and will need the supplement for the rest of his life.
The toddler is one of 1.5 million Australians each year who depend on lifesaving medicines, blood, and plasma donated by just 3.5 per cent of the population.
"This will be something that Charlie does for the rest of his life and I'm hopeful that the system stays as strong as it is," Ms Corbitt said.
Red Cross Lifeblood's director for national collections Brett King said plasma was a powerful tool for treatments.
"Plasma actually makes up more than half of our donations now, as opposed to traditional whole blood donations," he said.
"They could be for things like protecting kids from chicken pox or treating people with severe complications from burns, or treating people with blood-related diseases."
Donated blood and plasma are shipped to four processing centres around Australia for testing, sorting, and freezing.
Some goes direct to hospitals for cancer, heart surgery, and burns victims, with the rest shipped to CSL in Melbourne to be made into treatments like Charlie's immunoglobulin.
One in three will need a donation
A survey released by Lifeblood last week, during Blood Donor Week, revealed Australians underestimated how much donated blood is needed by patients each year while vastly overestimating how many roll up their sleeves.
"Three quarters of respondents don't know that one in three will need donated blood in their lifetime," said Cath Stone, Lifeblood executive director of donor services.
It is calling for 140,000 more donors.
Recently the TGA lifted bans on people becoming donors who lived in Britain during the mad cow outbreak, and the sexual activity deferral is also under review with its three-month waiting period possibly being further reduced.
