Brisbane City Station police officers, Sergeant Amy Drummond and Acting Sergeant Madison Hughes, rolled up their sleeves today to donate blood as part of the Lifeblood ‘Bleed4Blue’ campaign.
The campaign was a blood drive initially created by the NSW policing community, as well as the general public, to give back following the stabbing of Detective Sergeant John Breda in February 2018.
Detective Sergeant Breda needed more than 44 bags of blood to save his life, and is a strong advocate for blood donation, encouraging others to donate to make sure there is always enough blood when it is needed most.
Yesterday, NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller once again called out to all policing services and family and friends across the country and challenged them to donate.
Sergeant Drummond and Acting Sergeant Hughes (pictured below) stepped up the challenge today and each donated blood for the worthy cause. In fact, it was Acting Sergeant Hughes’ first donation.
Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said she knew just how important it was for Queenslanders to be donating blood at this time of year.
“Given the COVID-19 pandemic, blood donations are as essential as ever,” Commissioner Carroll said.
“I give my sincere thanks to everyone who regularly donates.
“I encourage my Queensland Police Service colleagues and the community to donate blood during this campaign and support this important cause.”
Liam Richardson from Lifeblood said the Bleed4Blue campaign, as well as being from a very worthy cause, comes at a challenging time for Lifeblood.
“With lots of our regular donors going on holidays over Christmas, especially now that we can move around a bit, we really need to call on people who may not have donated before, or not donated regularly, to come in and make a donation,” Mr Richardson said.
“We need to collect 31,000 donations every week, and this can be challenging over the Christmas period, so this challenge comes at a great time for us.
“Plus, the Queensland Lifeblood Team really want to beat New South Wales this year, so if you are a serving officer, or a friend or family, or even a member of the public wanting to support the Queensland Police Service, please make an appointment and join the Queensland Police Service Lifeblood Team so your donation counts toward the tally.”