Giving back to your community doesn’t have to be complicated, right?
By Aaron Cordy
ACTS of kindness and generosity big and small can be life-changing for the recipient, but for the giving heart, it can lead to a profound change in their own life.
This is what Central Coast father of three, Simmo Braun discovered when he began a tour of every Lifeblood Donation Centre in the country, to inspire and encourage people who are eligible to donate blood and plasma to do so.
“I’ve been donating blood for 25 years, ever since I was first eligible when I turned 16. That’s 18 now. And it just became part of my identity and my routine. I would go every fortnight or so unless I was sick or something to donate plasma,” said Simmo
“Last year I had some big challenges in my life, and the fact or the act of donating every two weeks actually pulled me out of a bit of a negative mental health space. Some of the main pillars of my life got knocked over. But by donating and helping someone else that needed it so much, you know, for their life depended on it, that got me out of my negative space by giving me self-value and worth.
“I think that’s so powerful. For me as a blood donor, I mean, I do it for the people that need my blood, but also do it for me, because doing good feels good, and so I love it. And so you know, around that time, when I was rebuilding my life and deciding who I wanted to be, how I wanted to show up, I also learned that one in three Aussies will need blood in their life, only three per cent donate, and Australia imports a lot of blood from overseas because we don’t have enough donors here.
“I found that shocking, shocking, because not only do we import blood, we’re exporting that feeling that you get from helping someone. Giving back to your community doesn’t have to be complicated, right? A blood donation, a whole blood donation takes half an hour from walking in to walking out and going in five minutes with a needle in your arm. It’s free. In fact, I say it has a negative cost because they give you a free lunch afterwards, and you feel bloody great about it.”
To donate plasma takes roughly 90 minutes and you can do that every two weeks.
Simmo began his trek on the first of August from his home base in NSW and went up and back to Cairns, donating at 24 donor centres along the way. With his three kids and a few helpers in a caravan, it has been a bloody good trip so far, as he wraps up the second leg of his tour of regional NSW and dipping into Shepparton before returning home. Next year they will tackle the rest of the country.
“I love donating fortnightly. I do it every 12 days, at the beginning it was two weeks, but you’re allowed to do it two days early, which helps with aligning for me on the travel. But if you’re a person that can only do it once a year when you have your trip to a town that has a donor centre, awesome. If you do your whole blood four times a year, awesome. Whatever people fit into their routine, that’s great,” said Simmo.
