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Speaker 1: What saves the territories. Emergency services have come to the

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Speaker 1: rescue as cold and flu season hits the Northern Territories.

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Speaker 1: Emergency services personnel are going to be hard at work

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Speaker 1: saving lives at a critical time this year by donating

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Speaker 1: as much blood and plasma as possible. Now, joining us

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Speaker 1: on the line to tell us a little bit more

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Speaker 1: is Australian Red Cross Lifeblood Media and Communications manager for

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Speaker 1: Queensland and the Northern Territory, Belinda Smithcheek. Good morning to you, Belinda.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Belinda.

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Speaker 1: Tell us what is this campaign all about.

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Speaker 2: Well, we've got the Emergency Services Challenge running right now

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Speaker 2: and it's a great timing because there' seeing huge numbers

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Speaker 2: of cancelation at the moment in the territory and right

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Speaker 2: across the country. And basically we've got all the emergency services, police,

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Speaker 2: fire and rescue, will buying, doctor's service, ambulance, all competing

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Speaker 2: to see who can donate the most blood and plasma

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Speaker 2: over the next few month.

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Speaker 1: And so like, how many are we expecting to actually

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Speaker 1: donate blood and plasma and how big a difference is

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Speaker 1: this going to make.

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Speaker 2: Well, every donations save three lives, So we're hoping to

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Speaker 2: get them hundreds of donations which will save you three

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Speaker 2: times that many lives and as many people as we

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Speaker 2: can donating. So family and friends of emergency service serf

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Speaker 2: nel can also donate as part of this challenge and

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Speaker 2: really help you know their their service or their emergency

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Speaker 2: service win the challenge. And it's great timing for us.

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Speaker 2: Like I said, we've got huge numbers of cancelations right

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Speaker 2: right to the territory and the country and this is

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Speaker 2: a huge helper U.

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Speaker 1: And those cancelations are they major like majority because people

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Speaker 1: have either got a flu or got COVID or whatever,

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Speaker 1: and so they're not able to head in still and

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Speaker 1: give blunt.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, you're actually healthy and well to donate.

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Speaker 2: And even if you've if you've been sick, have to

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Speaker 2: wait a full seven days before you can come in

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Speaker 2: buck after you've recovered. So business numbers are increasing over

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Speaker 2: this period of people being unwell. It really puts a

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Speaker 2: dent in our appointments. So we're asking anyone who tells

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Speaker 2: me and well whether your emergency services or not, to

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Speaker 2: come in and donate and save some lives.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it is like it's such a good idea, such

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Speaker 1: a good thing to do. Butlinda tell us, is this

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Speaker 1: the first time that you've had this challenge for the

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Speaker 1: Northern Territory or have we done it before?

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Speaker 2: We have done it before. We did it last year

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Speaker 2: and over three hundred and sixty lives to saved last

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Speaker 2: year through this challenge. They were hoping to beat that

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Speaker 2: this year and all the services. We had a whole

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Speaker 2: bunch of people in this morning in their uniforms, rolling

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Speaker 2: up their sleeves donating blood and plasma to encourage the

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Speaker 2: community and also all their fellow colleagues to come and

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Speaker 2: do the same.

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Speaker 1: Oh, it's a great initiative. Now where can people find

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Speaker 1: out some further detail we might I mean, we've got

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Speaker 1: a lot of emergency service workers that listen to this

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Speaker 1: show out at the hospital. We've got nurses listening out there.

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Speaker 1: I know, we've got the fireies, we've got police officers.

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Speaker 1: If they don't already know about it, where can they

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Speaker 1: head to for some further info?

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Speaker 2: Sure, you can gump on our website, which is lifeblood

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Speaker 2: dot com dot au. You can call us. I'm thirteen

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Speaker 2: fourteen ninety five and if you want to make an appointment,

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Speaker 2: you can download the donate blood app just mentioned you

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Speaker 2: want to donate as part of the Emergency Services Challenge,

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Speaker 2: so that your donation will count towards the tally and

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Speaker 2: we can see who comes out on top at the

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Speaker 2: at the end of augant.

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Speaker 1: Oh, wonderful stuff. And I know that we also we've

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Speaker 1: got the paramedics. I can think of all the different

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Speaker 1: emergency services and frontline workers that listen to the show.

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Speaker 1: So are we limited here? I mean, if we've got

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Speaker 1: correctional officers or anyone like that that wants to get involved,

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Speaker 1: can they do it too?

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Speaker 2: Absolutely? The more the thereas many people donating is just

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Speaker 2: a really wonderful thing. And you know, emergency services people

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Speaker 2: save lives every day is their job and this is

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Speaker 2: just an an extra way. They're going above and beyond

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Speaker 2: for us and we can't thank them enough. And it's

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Speaker 2: wonderful to see them, you know, leading by example and

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Speaker 2: rolling up the sleeves of their uniforms and we're really

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Speaker 2: proud to be partnering them with them on this.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon, it's a fantastic initiative. Great stuff. Australian

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Speaker 1: Red Cross Live Blood Media and Communications manager Belinda Smichuk,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time, thank you, thanks