“They keep on asking for volunteers - well there’s volunteers here, but they don’t service them,” Beth McNeil said. Mrs McNeil ran the town’s once very busy blood bank out of Inverell hospital for around 18 years, and said it never wanted for donors.

“We had 40 donors twice a month that would donate blood, which was a lot of people,” Inverell branch Red Cross president Colleen Nancarrow said. 

“It was like a slap in the face when they took the blood bank away from Inverell,” she added.

After the bank moved out of the hospital, a mobile version visited town once a month, working out of the RSM Club auditorium. However now, locals who want to donate must travel to Armidale. 

“These donors in the smaller communities are willing and able to donate and it’s such a shame when these services are taken away,” Mrs Nancarrow said.

She said the change was due to the increased demand for plasma. “I can understand why they want to regionalise the blood banks so they don’t have to supply the expensive plasma machines in the smaller centres, but the problem is there’s a lot of people in the smaller centres that want to donate blood,” she said.

The pair agreed that Armidale was a long way to travel to donate blood, and it was too far for many.

“Some of the donors would come round through their lunch break and donate blood, and some of them are working, so they find they can’t take time off work to travel to Armidale,” Mrs Nancarrow explained.

Commenting on the Inverell Times Facebook page, Heather Hottes agreed.

“I have to have blood drawn a few times a year and it annoys me that the closest blood bank is at Armidale,” she said.

“…I don’t have the time to drive to Armidale or want to spend the money to travel there either.” Gayle Jackson added that her husband, who had a rare blood group, was disappointed when Inverell Hospital turned him away when attempting to donate. 

With a growing community, Mrs McNeil believed that if the blood bank returned, there would be even more locals keen to give blood.

Although it is not currently in the plans, both women hope to see a blood bank included in the town’s upcoming hospital redevelopment.

Mrs Nancarrow said donating blood was rewarding. She recently received a letter telling her that her donation helped a cancer patient.

“We know very well that the blood is being utilised and needed and it’s just a shame that they’re chopping off smaller communities.”