Why Should You Donate Blood?
Let’s save a life!
Vampire Cup aims to increase blood donations while emphasising the importance of blood donation in the community. The competition is run in the lead up to winter in order to boost blood stocks in this critical period. Australia needs more blood donors. Currently, 1 in 3 will need blood during their lifetime but only 1 in 30 donate.
and win the Vampire Cup!
In addition to these incredible benefits, Vampire Cup is a competition with prizes for the bloodiest universities! AMSA awards three major prizes to the Universities recording the highest percentage of the cohort donating, the highest number of raw donations and the greatest annual improvement. In 2021, we also had prizes for the Universities who record the greatest percentage of plasma donations and the most first-time donors.
So get donating to ensure your University is lifting up a trophy at AMSA Council!
What can I donate?
Whole Blood
Whole blood is separated into its components of RBCs, plasma and platelets to be used for a range of conditions from major blood loss to patients undergoing cancer treatment.
Donation time = ~15mins to donate; add 30-45mins for paperwork + interview
Donation frequency = once every 3 months
*Image courtesy of American Red Cross PLUS Fall 2011, Volume Five, Issue Three
Plasma
Plasma is used to create 18 different blood products required lifelong for many patients with bleeding disorders, immune-deficiencies and rare diseases.
Donation time = ~45mins to donate; add 30mins for paperwork + interview
Donation frequency = once every 2 weeks (or 4 weeks after whole blood)
*Image courtesy of TEK IMAGE | Getty Images/Science Photo Library
Platelets
Platelets can only be stored for 5 days and as such are constantly needed. Only males can donate platelets in Australia due to a reduced incidence of Transfusion Related Acute Lung Injury (TRALI) in recipients.
Donation time = ~45mins to donate; add 30mins for paperwork + interview
Donation frequency = once every 2 weeks (or 4 weeks after whole blood)
*Image Courtesy of Stanford Blood Centre https://stanfordbloodcenter.org/platelet-donation-101/