it's a really terrible excuse,

but I've just never got around to it.

- I don't know.

- I just really have no reason why I've never done this

at the age of 23.

- I've had really low iron in the past

and other health reasons

that have led me to not be eligible

to donate blood,

but I'm feeling pretty healthy now,

and should be good to go.

(upbeat music)

- I'm Jenna Falkenmire and I'm a spokesperson

for the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.

So, the Australian Red Cross Blood Service

needs around 27,000 blood donations,

each and every week across Australia.

That's to help road accident victims, cancer patients,

those with autoimmune diseases,

and lots of other people undergoing surgery.

We do only have three percent of the population

donating blood though.

So, we actually do need to be constantly out in the public,

encouraging other people to donate,

and certainly having three percent

of the population donating, that's not many.

We could certainly use more

and we do tend to rely

on the same people donating quite regularly.

We actually say one in 30 people donate blood

and one in three people are likely

to need some sort of blood

or a blood product at some stage in their life.

- Hey, I'm Nancy Luchich.

I was born with a genetic blood disorder

called Thalassemia Major,

whereby, my red blood cells don't have

the ability to reproduce.

Patients like myself require regular blood transfusions

every three to four weeks, in order for survival.

So, the blood donators that donate blood

are actually our lifeline

and are giving us the gift of life.

(upbeat music)

- I'm feeling really good,

I'm actually feeling really relaxed.

This is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

I thought I would be feeling woozy and nervous, but I'm...

It's like, it's kinda cool, like yeah,

I'm not freaked out at all.

- It's pretty cool.

It's a workday and I'm laying down.

I'll do this regulary, yeah, it's fun.

- I felt pretty good,

and then I saw like the bags brought out

that they were gonna put the blood in, and that...

I did have a moment of like oh my god,

why are they taking that much?

But once they started going for it, it was pretty cool.

- I feel really fine.

I feel silly for being nervous.

- We need people in here every day,

because we actually can't keep the blood for a long time,

but essentially, as soon as your blood is collected,

it's gonna go to help somebody almost straight away.

- Once you break the ice and give blood for the first time,

you would wonder why you didn't do it sooner.

It's great, it's easy,

and you just feel good with yourself after.

- Now I've got a cool bandage, I've got a sticker,

and they gave me a cookie, which was delicious.

- I would definitely do it again.

Like I wanna kinda look into how often I can do it

cuz I feel like I should do it as often as possible.

- I feel so good

and if anything, just a little bit silly

that I wasn't able to do this earlier.

- It took me five minutes of my day today

to make such a big impact on three other people's lives,

so it's a really incredible feeling.

- Some people can't donate due to health reasons,

and I understand that,

but if you're able to,

I think there's absolutely no reason not to.

- What I did today took 10 minutes

and it might save somebody's life.

That's a really amazing feeling.

(upbeat music)