Canadian Blood Services seeing ‘very drastic dip’ in blood donations locally

Canadian Blood Services in Kitchener-Waterloo are making a plea to the public after they say donations dried up following a surge over the holidays.

Edward Fulton said he donates every couple of months.

“The reason I do it is my mom needed a lot of blood because she had progressive leukemia so she asked if family would do it. So I started ever since, so [2007],” said Fulton.

Repeat donors make up only a small portion Canadian Blood Services receives.

“Typically where we get a huge bulk of our donors from each year is new donors. So this comes from secondary and post-secondary schools, which we unfortunately have not been able to return to,” said Gina Leyva with Canadian Blood Services.

The organization said they rely heavily on mobile clinics with the location on Bridgeport Road in Waterloo being their only permanent spot in the Tri-cities.

Due to the pandemic, the mobile clinics have not returned to schools, as many students are studying online.

This is cause for concern, according to local clinic staff.

“Just after the holiday period, we saw a very drastic dip in blood donations,” admitted Leyva.

There are still about 250 appointments available next week. That’s half of the number of appointments they can accommodate.

“And for me, locally, I haven't seen a number like that in many months,” said Leyva.

Canadian Blood Services said they need more donations to carry them through the rest of the winter.

They’re grateful for donors like Sara Flamenco Martinez.

“I'm a nursing student as well so I get an idea of being out there in the field. I see people with blood transfusions – just the necessity for that,” said Flamenco Martinez. “It's just really unfortunate and I wonder why people aren't coming out.”

While local Canadian Blood Services staff said they have a big mountain to climb, they're hopeful they can get there because it just takes a bit of blood and a bit of time to save a life.