The nation's supply of live-saving blood is under critical pressure with donations at record low levels amid COVID-19 and flu cancellations.
About 30,000 donor appointments per week are being cancelled, postponed or are no-shows, leaving some parts of Australia with less than one day's supply of the emergency blood type O negative.
Cancellations are at their worst level since the pandemic began in March 2020 due to the "triple threat" of flu, COVID and other respiratory illnesses.
Current supply of the O-negative blood type covers only 0.9 days in New South Wales and ACT, while nationally it is 1.6 days. Typically Red Cross aims for at least three to four days' supply.
In the week of July 1 to 8, there is a projected shortfall of 3700 O negative donors nationally. NSW is expected to be 1007 donors short of its target, Victoria 1017 and the ACT 156.
Blood donor and past blood transfusion recipient Kate Waterford urged new or lapsed donors to help make up the shortfall at donor centres, which in some cases have sat almost empty for parts of recent days.
"After the birth of my daughter in 2015, essentially after I'd given birth, I had a big haemorrhage and needed the blood transfusions in an emergency setting, that was the first transfusion I had," she said.
It was several weeks later when Ms Waterford was recovering at home she had another unexpected hemorrhage.
"I was just in my parents' bathroom, I was rushed into hospital by ambulance, unconscious basically and ended up waking up with the blood being dripped into me," she said.
A third event was completely unconnected to Ms Waterford's pregnancy, when she had another internal hemorrhage last year after surgery.
The instances Ms Waterford needed blood were weighted by further stress as her blood type is the universal O-negative, meaning she can only receive O-negative blood transfusions.
"I've been a donor for years, well over a decade I have been going in for donations, I've given blood, I've given plasma and I felt very conscious that they were using this precious O-negative on me," she said.
"[Donating blood] I had this feeling that I was helping out a stranger I'd never know and I was, on these three occasions, on the other side of that feeling.
"What an incredible act of generosity that they can basically save my life in such a terrible moment and I will never know their name and be able to thank them, so it's quite a powerful experience and I know I'll give blood again."
Ms Waterford is hoping to donate as soon as she can once she is cleared from her last transfusion as she sees it as something that "makes an enormous difference to someone's life".
"The main message I want to get across is what absolute heroes those donors are," she said. "There are all these people out there who might be crossing paths in a supermarket who actually saved my life and what an incredible act of heroism that is."
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