By Jamie Salter
A Pakenham resident is celebrating after giving her 200th donation of blood to the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood.
Madeleine Smith gave blood for the first time when she was 16 years old in England, 1966.
She said she has continued to give blood ever since.
“It was good primarily because they let you have time of work and you still got paid but you could only donate twice a year back then,“ she said.
“I started going every six months at the time and carried on after I was married, had children and moved to Australia.“
Mrs Smith was born in England and migrated to Australia in 1977 and has been living in Pakenham for about 12 years.
Now at 71 years old, she is retired and donates blood every two weeks.
“There’s people who have given a lot more than I have but being in a situation where I’m retired, I can’t give much monetary donations but blood is something I can give,“ she said.
“You’re blood is always tested before it’s given to anyone – you’re getting a miniature health check each time, so it’s a good thing to do.“
Mrs Smith travels to Ringwood to donate plasma – the only location near Pakeham aside from Frankston to donate plasma.
She said she also donates blood at the pop-up centres that arrive every three months.
“I’ll still be giving blood but I don’t think I’ll be giving plasma because it’s a big, 100km round trip from Pakenham every two weeks,“ she said.
As an O Negative blood type, Mrs Smith is a universal blood donor and can donate to any other blood type.
“It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t really cost anything and I know it’s doing good,“ she said.
“They say one person can help five people – so that means I’ve helped 1,000.“
She said it would be great to see more young people donating blood regularly.
“I think everyone should do it if they can, imagine if you were in a situation where you needed blood and it wasn’t available.“
Fittingly, International Blood Donor Day lands on Mrs Smith’s birthday – June 14.
To celebrate her 200th donation, Mrs Smith’s husband Steve gave her a bouquet of flowers.
