Navy donating to help others
Chief Petty Officer Graeme Cruickshank, of HMAS Kuttabul, started donating blood when he first joined the Navy.
He still manages to do this and encourages fellow shipmates to join him.
Chief Petty Officer Cruickshank said he was in a motorcycle accident in 1983 near Darwin when his leg ended up wrapped around a barbed-wire fence.
“A severed nerve caused massive blood loss and I required a blood transfusion to save my life,” he said.
“Of course I don’t know who gave the blood I needed, but I do know someone had given their time to donate.”
During Chief Petty Officer Cruickshank’s posting to Fleet Support Unit-Sydney in 2009, he and the unit started to get as many sailors as they could to donate blood every three months.
Among the regular donors were members of the weapons engineering department who went to the old well-known Red Cross centre on Clarence Street.
Although he still donates blood and plans to also donate plasma, Chief Petty Officer Cruickshank said the Defence Blood Challenge also gave him the chance to compete for Navy.
“The plan this year is to outgun both the RAAF and the Army,” he said.
“It would be great for all sailors to get behind Navy and donate as often as they can so we can lead the way in the 2012 Defence Organisation Blood Challenge.”
When encouraging people to donate blood, Chief Petty Officer Cruickshank reminds them that one in three Australians need blood, yet only one in 30 donates.
“At some stage in your life you, a family member, a colleague or friend may need blood and by donating you may be helping them,” he said.