TODAY MARKS A special day for Barnaba Dorda, a lawyer originally from southern Poland and proud ‘bloody foreigner’ who has lived in Ireland for the last 13 years.
Today he will give his first unit of blood and it will be sent to the Irish Blood Transfusion Services Laboratory in the National Blood Centre on James’ Street in Dublin, from where it will go on to help the adults, children or babies who need it.
This is Barnaba’s first time giving a full unit of blood since giving his first sample (all blood donors must allow a 90 day wait time between any blood donation activity).
He was inspired to donate by the Immigrant Council of Ireland’s ‘Bloody Foreigners’ campaign, launched in collaboration with Forum Polonia and supported by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service.
As a first-time donor, he had already given his first, sample-only donation in April to “become part of the family of people who donate”. This is a requirement for all first-time donors born outside Ireland; IBTS run these tests for donor and recipient health reasons and so that they can build a full profile of the donor.
Each full unit of blood from every single donor is also tested to an exceptionally high standard to ensure that the current Irish blood supply is one of the safest supplies in the world.
To Barnaba, it’s a really reassuring part of the process: “It’s great that they check your blood as a sample-only, it’s very reasonable and I’d prefer that my blood is checked.”
It was Barnaba’s friend Teresa Buczkowska who first invited him to give blood. Buczkowska – a fellow Polish migrant and ‘bloody foreigner’ – works for the Immigrant Council of Ireland and has donated blood ten times in both Poland and Ireland, for a total of 20 donations since the age of 18. (As an existing regular donor Teresa was able to give a full unit when she went to the clinic to support Barnaba.)
Poland has a long standing tradition of blood donation, so targeting Ireland’s biggest migrant community, the campaign hopes to encourage Polish people to become blood donors in Ireland.
As part of the campaign, Teresa and Barnaba were invited into the IBTS lab to see exactly what happens to blood when it comes into the lab for testing, processing and classification and how it is stored before it is delivered to a hospital to be given to a recipient.
It was an eye-opening experience. Standing in the large cold storage area in the lab where the blood stock is kept for the entire country is a moment that will stay in Teresa’s mind forever.
When you realise that every unit of blood has come from many individuals who made time to give blood to help save the life of someone they will never meet, you are just struck how important it is to donate and what an incredibly valuable and life-giving substance blood is.
Though Teresa has been donating for over a decade in both of her home countries, something quite special started last year.
The Irish Blood Transfusion Service began a text service that tells you exactly where your blood is about to be used to help patients. For Teresa it was an extremely emotional experience receiving that first text:
When I got that message the first time, I actually started crying. It becomes so real knowing that your blood is actually helping patients.
Last year, Teresa received a message that told her that her donation was being used in a children’s hospital, which was “even more emotional”. Teresa often visits the blood clinic to donate during lunch and describes the experience as “such a simple thing to do, but the impact of that can be so heavy on other people’s lives.”
“It’s the most obvious way to help someone in need” agrees Barnaba. “The text messages just make you think ‘wow’, it can be very emotional knowing you are helping children or babies in need.”
The Immigrant Council of Ireland, Forum Polonia and IBTS want to encourage Polish people living in Ireland, who are the largest immigrant group in Ireland, to participate in actively becoming a blood donor in their local communities. You can find out more about Bloody Foreigners here and whether you’re eligible to donate here.
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