Dorothy Westerman
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 28/05) - Before you roll up your sleeve to give the gift of life this fall, be aware no blood donor clinic exists in the NWT.

Derek Mellon, media relations manager with Canadian Blood Services Ottawa, says a blood donor clinic must be held in a location not farther than four to five hours away from one of their facilities.

"At this point in time, they couldn't donate it in the area," Mellon says.

The nearest blood manufacturing facility is in Edmonton.

Given the time it takes to set up the clinic to collect blood, prepare it, then dismantle the clinic and ship it, time is the main factor, Mellon said.

"When we collect the blood, in certain cases we divide it up into different components such as platelets, plasma or red blood cells.

"Some of those must get back to our facility within a certain amount of time to be useable," Mellon explains.

"That limits how far we can go out to certain areas. That is essentially the main criteria as to why we don't have them in remote areas," he says of the blood donor clinics.

Statistics show that out of 12.1 million eligible Canadian blood donors in regions where clinics are held, less than four per cent donate blood, he noted.

Mellon says he understands it must be frustrating to those willing to donate blood not to have such a clinic in the NWT.

"But we are a non-profit charitable organization and it wouldn't be appropriate for us to get one donation and only use the red blood cells and not use the plasma and platelets.

Robin Greig, manager of the laboratory at Stanton Territorial Hospital in Yellowknife, says the lack of active blood donor clinics in the North does not affect those in need of blood.

"We've had no problem in receiving the adequate inventory to provide service here," Greig says.

In the NWT, blood is stored in Fort Smith, Inuvik, Hay River and Yellowknife.

On occasion, people do call to inquire about donating blood, he notes.

"What we do is encourage them to donate if they are travelling south," he says.

He did not know exactly how many people require blood on any given basis, but says it is obviously on a required basis.

There is an option to blood donation, however, Mellon says. "What they can do is to is join the unrelated bone marrow donor registry," he says of an option.

Of the number of people who need bone marrow transplants, Mellon said only about one-third will find it through their families.

The rest rely on unrelated donors, he said, thus the need for a registry.

Donors can give a small sample of blood, it subsequently gets typed and goes into the worldwide registry.

"People may never get called or get called in three or four years, but it is one way of joining the registry," Mellon said of the approximately one-half million people currently registered.

While Mellon did not know the exact cost of holding a blood donor clinic, he said it is a costly venture and therefore as much blood and as many blood components must be collected as possible.

Once blood is manufactured, shipping does not require such a short time frame because of its increased life span, he notes.

Blood is shipped to the major hospital in the area and that hospital will often parcel out the blood to outlying clinics or hospitals, Mellon says of the shipping protocol.

"We get orders from the hospitals and send it to them. It is up to them how they will use it and when they will use it," he says.

Andrew Laycock, a communications spokesperson for Canadian Blood Services, says once manufactured, red blood cells have a shelf life of 42 days, platelets five days and plasma can be frozen and have a shelf life of up to 10 years.

Laycock says a system has been designed to ensure adequate supply is always at hand. "We do a very good job of ensuring that the products are there when they are needed."