Nursing students recruits 30 plasma donors and wins $3,000 bursary

According to Canadian Blood Services, more than 25,000 appointments need to be filled before the end of the year for blood and plasma donations in Canada. Officials from the organization say six out of 10 eligible donors believe donating during the Christmas holidays is important but only one in 10 are planning to book before December 31st.

Eliza Poettcker, a nursing student from Lethbridge College is doing her part as she recruited 30 plasma donors. For her efforts, she won a $3,000 bursary.

“When I was going around kind of getting as many people to come donate plasma as possible, it was really interesting to me, all these individuals who voiced great interest in doing it but had never done it before. Just because they hadn’t been pushed to or they didn’t really understand how or the process was like a little bit foreign, so they really wanted someone to go with. So I think that was kind of cool. I felt like I was able to kind to bridge the gap between the need and then also helping those people find a way that they felt like they could contribute.”

Canadian Blood Services says the number of people who donate regularly has decreased by 31,000 since the start of the pandemic. There are more than 720 plasma appointments that need to be filled at the Lethbridge Plasma Donor Centre by December 31st.