Australian Red Cross Lifeblood

Your plasma could help anyone, even Olympian Michael Klim.

You may know Michael Klim as one of the towering powerhouses of the Australian swimming ‘dream team’ at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Today, he still towers…but braces on his legs hold him up. And so do blood donors.

“I never thought my body would let me down,” says Michael. “Until it did.”

In 2020 Michael was diagnosed with chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy, or CIDP, a rare autoimmune condition, which caused muscle wasting in his legs. Now, as often as every six weeks, Michael needs infusions of medicine made from donated plasma, (which can be donated by itself or as part of a blood donation) to stay well.

Each time, he receives medicine made from up to 6 plasma donations or 32 blood donations. Watch Michael’s story and learn more about plasma

And he’s not the only one who need plasma.

In fact, every day, over 1,000 people in Australia need donated plasma or medicine made from it.

So, Lifeblood needs to collect over 1.5 million donations — including around 860,000 plasma donations — each year.

That’s a lot of plasma! Can you spare a little of yours? Head to www.lifeblood.com.au or phone 131495 to register and book your appointment and go for gold