Garda Blood4Life 2014 Cycle kicks off today

The Garda Blood4Life cycle starts today (Monday) and runs through to Friday 16^th May. That’s 20 Gardai cycling over 1,000km through all 26 counties in only 5 days!

Different to many charity events, the Garda Blood4Life cycle is not about raising money. Instead it wants to raise awareness about the need for blood donations. In 2013, the first Blood4Life Cycle generated a full week’s blood for the Irish Blood Transfusion Service. This year they want a month’s worth of blood!

People are asked to pledge a unit of blood on the IBTS website, www.giveblood.ie. Better still, attend a local clinic and turn your pledge into a donation. Last year, many of those who pledged a unit of blood have since returned to give second and third donations.

The Blood4Life Cycle was created by Stephen Roe, a Cork City-based garda. In 2005, Stephen's son Alex was diagnosed with leukaemia. Five years of treatment followed. During that time, it took more than 50 blood transfusions to keep Alex alive. He died on May 31, 2010, aged 21.

This awareness raising event will be in a county near you at some stage over the next 5 days.  If you are interested in interviewing the participants for your newspaper, or featuring Stephen Roe on your radio show, please contact Mirenda O’Donovan to arrange an interview.  The route schedule is outlined below.

 “Somebody else will do it”

The importance of blood donation cannot be over-stressed. Transfusions save lives - lots of them. From new-born babies to road-crash victims to cancer patients, an adequate supply of blood and blood products are critical to their very survival and recovery.

“It is estimated 1 in 4 of us will require a blood transfusion in our lifetime – but only 3% of the population are active donors. Unfortunately, not everybody can give blood, so the service needs to attract new donors and encourage existing donors to give more regularly. The Blood4Life 2014 Cycle will help us increase awareness of the need for more donors, and start interested people on the road to giving blood,” said Stephen Cousins, National Donor Services Manager, IBTS.

 “Because of the regular blood transfusions – Alex’s petrol as we called it, because it picked him up so much – we got 5 extra years and Alex got to reach his goal of celebrating his 21^st birthday. We are forever grateful to the donors who took the couple of hours to give blood - and gave Alex extra years” – Stephen Roe, Garda and originator of Blood4Life Cycle.

Stephen admits that, prior to Alex’s illness, he had never seriously thought about where the blood supply comes from or how vital blood donation is. Alex's story isn't unique. Around the country, tens of thousands of people benefit from blood transfusions annually. 

Stephen is very happy to share Alex's story, to describe the positive impact which the blood transfusions Alex received had on him and on the family as a whole. It literally breathed new life into Alex at times when his system was at its lowest because of the very aggressive treatment he was undergoing. Stephen also talks about how the blood transfusions Alex received gave him an extra five years of life and gave the family an extra five years of Alex. Alex's 21st birthday party was a particularly special event, as without speaking openly about it, they knew they were probably saying goodbye to Alex.

Other blood recipient stories and blood donor stories are also available, please let us know if you are interested in featuring a recipient or a donor.

ENDS

Notes to Editor

The IBTS needs to collect 3,000 donations a week

Blood lasts just 35 days. Platelets and Neonatal blood lasts between 5 and 7 days only.

IBTS aims to hold about 7days supply of blood at any given time

47% of the population are O positive

8% of the population are O negative but this blood groups represents 14% of all blood used.

Just 3% of the eligible population give blood

Donors give on average 1.6 times a year. They may be able to donate up to 4 times a year.