Jemma Falkenmire

That's 60,000 lives saved.

I should say that we made changes to our plasma donation rules last year, which effectively removed sexual activity rules from plasma donation.

And we've seen 10,000 donations from that change so far.

And I guess it's a good reminder to people that people that can't donate in other countries, including those with new or multiple partners,

or people on PrEP, which is a medication that prevents HIV.

All of those people will be able to donate plasma still in Australia, but we are expecting that these blood donation changes will really expand Australia's eligibility.

That's right.

And I think people still have that misconception that blood donation is all about accidents and trauma.

And it is really important in those situations.

And it can take 100 donations to help someone in that situation.

But we have thousands of cancer patients and new mums.

Also, plasma is just this really magic part of blood that is helping more than 50 medical conditions in our hospitals now.

So that need is growing and going up.

And so having these extra people able to donate blood is really critical and you really don't know when it might be someone you know or love who needs that blood.

Yeah, so I guess cancer patients are Australia's largest users of blood and all the parts of blood are needed to help them.

So there's three bits in blood, so the platelets, the tiny band-aids which clot.

They're really important in chemotherapy to stop bleeding,

They're important for new mums who might be late or hemorrhaging in childbirth.

They're important for newborn babies if they're not born with enough platelets.

They're used in accidents and emergencies.