Blood drive exceeds expectations
Wihse Stacey heads up the Kahnawake Fire Brigade, so he knows better than most that injuries and trauma can strike anyone at any time. But as he climbed into a blood drawing recliner at the Mohawk Super Bingo on Tuesday, his motivation for rolling up his sleeve was even more personal.
In September 2023, he lost his father Charlie Stacey to bone cancer, a disease that meant his father’s bone marrow was not producing enough platelets. While there was nothing doctors could do to defeat the cancer, the platelets the doctors gave him from blood donations meant everything to him and his family.
“It ended up giving us an extra year with him,” said Wihse. “I said at that point that I would give back.”
Giving back was in the air this week as 111 donors turned out to the Kateri Memorial Hospital Centre (KMHC) blood drive in partnership with Hema Quebec and the Kateri Memorial Foundation, easily beating the event’s goal of 75 donations.
A total of 95 bags of blood were collected, enough for more than 285 products for transfusion, according to Hema Quebec spokesperson Josée Larivée. Nearly 65 percent of donors on Tuesday were from Kahnawake.
“It is crucial to have donors from the Mohawk community because certain rare blood groups are predominant there,” said Larivée.
This includes type Di(b-) blood, she said.
“That may mean very little, until the day a loved one needs blood for his or her life,” Larivée said.
According to KMHC director of nursing and community care Robin Guyer, blood donations are frequently used by the local hospital.
“A lot of people use blood, and it could be for a multitude of reasons, so it’s not to say any specific type of client will need it. I think it’s something more common than people realize,” said Guyer.
She pointed out that while some may fear needles or feel uncomfortable with the thought of giving blood, the administrative process takes the bulk of the time - the donation itself is not painful and lasts only around 10 minutes.
“It’s great to see our community supporting our own community members, and it’s always really warming of the heart to have that happening,” said Guyer.
It was the KMHC’s second blood donor clinic since taking over the initiative from The Eastern Door last autumn.
“We’re hoping to see a rise in participation, especially since Kateri Memorial Hospital Center actually does utilize blood donations for some of the treatments that we offer,” said Simona Rosenfield, communications and public relations officer at KMHC, at the event.
This came to pass, with over 20 more donations than the 87 achieved when the blood drive was last held in October.
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According to Rosenfield, the KMHC intends to offer a blood donor clinic alongside its partners every two to five months in Kahnawake.
While clinics are offered all over Quebec, giving Kahnawa’kehró:non the opportunity to give blood in town can make all the difference.
“I kept telling myself the next one, the next one, the next one,” said Wihse. “It got to the point where I was just procrastinating. I am a little nervous, I’ve never done this before, so I don’t really know what to expect, but the fact that this is here, this is now, I finally said okay, it’s time. It’s close. It’s community.”
Marcus Bankuti, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
