First-time donors packed the Blood Bank’s first visit to Orkney in more than 15 years.
Across three days this week, staff from the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) have been running donor sessions in Kirkwall’s Pickaquoy Centre.
These are being held as pilot programme which will be reviewed in the coming months.
If all goes well, Orkney could be included in future annual collection programmes across the north after being left off for more than a decade.
We visited the Pickaquoy Centre for the final donor session to find out why the Blood Bank is back in Orkney and why donors lined up to help.
Visit exceeds Blood Bank’s expectations
When the visit had been announced, the Blood Bank hoped to see 75 donors per day.
Dr Sylvia Armstrong-Fisher, the organisation’s Head of Territory Northern Arch, explained they’d already exceeded that with 157 attendees in the first two days.
They’d been expecting a further 88 throughout Wednesday’s session.
With last blood donor session in Orkney being in 2009, perhaps it should not be a surprise that just over 53% of the locals they’ve seen are new donors.
While this means extra time on admin for the team, Dr Armstrong-Fisher said getting new donors is important for the service as it means maintaining a much-needed healthy stock of people willing to donate.
Dr Armstrong-Fisher said: “It’s been very busy but we’ve had a really tremendous response from the people of Orkney.
“We’ve had an enormous turnout from new donors.
“If everything’s going smoothly, it would take one hour for someone to give blood.
Why hasn’t Blood Bank been visiting Orkney?
“But we have so many first-time donors that they’re not used to the process and there’s a lot of questions to go through.
“We also have to make sure every donor has the very best experience.”
So why haven’t there been session in Orkney for so long?
Dr Armstrong-Fisher said: “In 2009, due to challenges with transporting blood back from Orkney, and other issues such as staffing, we undertook a full review of Orkney collection.
“As a result of this review, which identified significant challenges with logistics and staffing, Orkney collection was ceased at that time.
“We’ve been pleased to return as part of a pilot.
“We’ve asking both donors and staff for feedback on their experience.
She also explained that the logistics of carrying out the donation session on an island can “make things a little twitchy.”
Each day, a vehicle holding the blood in controlled storage had to leave the Pickaquoy centre at about 3.15pm to catch the afternoon ferry from Stromness to the Scottish mainland.
It then makes its way down to wherever a team from Inverness are working that day, which has meant a trip to Elgin some days.
This has to be done within 24 hours, so any delay to the ferries could knock back the order of things.
After that, the blood then travels further to Edinburgh and the Jack Copland Centre.
Why Orkney donors want to give blood
Orcadians have certainly stepped up to use the visiting service with all slots completely filled within four days of being announced.
Speaking to two of the donors, they said they wanted to do what they can.
Waiting give blood, Stephanie Scollie, from Kirkwal,l said: “It’s something I’ve always wanted to do just to see if I can help somebody.
“My sister had a blood transfusion during her pregnancy. So it was an easy decision to come along and do it.
Tanya Digby was in the process of giving blood.
She said: “I’ve done it because I would hate to think of an operation being cancelled for anyone because there’s a shortage of blood.
“It’s the one thing I can do to help.”
Conversation