Fall in blood donations attributed to competition

Up to 10 years ago, as many as 120 donors could be expected to give blood during one of the firefighters' day-long blood clinics, says Daniel de Vries, section chief for fire prevention at the Montreal Fire Department's Station 76.

"After all these years, it's been going down and down," says de Vries. "Last year we had maybe 55 or 56 donors. This year we hope to have 55 at least." By about 3 p.m. during their latest clinic held at the firehall last Tuesday, about 20 donors had given blood.

De Vries attributes the decline to competition. "Place Alexis Nihon has a blood donor day, there's the mayor's clinic at Victoria Hall, and we're all going after the same people, so there are no more new donors … We try our best, but there's only four per cent of the population that gives blood."

This year, the firefighters held their blood clinic in conjunction with the Montreal Police at Station 12 and Westmount's Public Security Department, who are all headquartered on Stanton Street.

Mai Jay, a librarian at the Westmount Public Library, was donating blood for the fifth or sixth time and had previously donated at the Westmount mayor's blood clinic.

Alexandra Garcia, 18, a student at Dawson College, was donating blood for the second time. "It feels good because you're giving a part of yourself to somebody," she said, describing the experience.

Suzie Larivière, a registered nurse with Héma-Québec, the agency mandated to collect blood across the province, has been doing the job for only a few months. She previously worked as a nurse at the Jewish General Hospital. She said the amount of stress involved working in a blood donor clinic is much less than it is in a hospital.

Lieutenant Pierre Liboiron, a police officer at Station 12, was giving blood for the first time. "It's pretty simple and it's for a good cause," he said, while stretched out on a cot, making the donation. "I invite others to do it."