HUNTER emergency services rolled up their sleeves on Tuesday 30 July to help boost the region's blood donations.
Local branches of NSW Police, Ambulance and Fire and Rescue took part in a country-wide initiative at the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood's Wallsend mobile donor centre.
Luke Wiseman, a chief superintendent at NSW Ambulance, has seen first-hand how blood donations save lives.
His father had acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), a blood disorder which required multiple amounts of blood products to help him.
"I've never donated before but I wanted to do this for the broader community and for personal reasons too," Mr Wiseman said.
"It is such a vital piece of our trauma treatment to provide patients that need it most, and also those patients in hospital that require blood products," he said.
Higher need for blood in winter
Each year, Lifeblood runs an emergency services blood drive across Australia from June 1 to August 31 where teams compete to donate the most blood.
Lifeblood group account manager for the Hunter, Brian Bruce said with one month to go, Victoria Police were in the lead, followed closely by NSW Police.
Mr Bruce said 10 per cent of people booked in for blood donations in the Hunter did not follow through with donating, which he said was the highest level in more than 10 years.
"In Newcastle we need 2,300 blood donations booked in a month to meet demand," he said.
"We are in need of new donors purely because in the winter cough, cold and flu season, our regular donors aren't turning up," he said.
Every blood donation could save three lives, Mr Bruce said.
District Commander at Newcastle City Police District, Kylie Endemi, said she was passionate about donating blood regularly.
"In relation to the work that we do, in our emergency service to the community you can see the need for it, particularly in trauma incidents that we attend," Ms Endemi said.
NSW Fire and Rescue zone commander Brian Smart said he was looking forward to donating for the first time.
"I'm happy to be involved in the emergency services blood challenge, to lead by example and get all the firefighters involved," he said.
Mr Bruce said today's emergency service blood drive was likely to push the Wallsend donation centre over it's aim of 24 donations in one day.
