Tamworth Regional Council donates blood: Wins national competition

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service group challenge, which ran from April to June, invited local council's across Australia to compete to see who could make the most donations.

The Tamworth region stood up to the challenge, making 147 donations and saving up to 441 lives – beating out large councils such as Gold Coast City (3600 employees) and Wollongong City Council (2000 employees).

Mayor Col Murray said the initiative sparked some healthy competition amongst departments.

"We are over the moon that a council our size has beaten the likes of Gold Coast to take out the lead prize,” Cr Murray said.

“We have some enthusiastic team members and it was fantastic to see the healthy competition play out for such a great cause."

Cr Murray practised what he preached, donating blood five times during the competition – the most of any mayor in the country.

TRC general manager Paul Bennett said the achievement demonstrated the values council held dear.

“It all feeds into who we are as an organisation and the way feel about our community,” Mr Bennett said.

“It’s something that is very close to our heart, because we know the impact giving blood has on other people. We’ve had people in our own organisation that have been the recipients of blood in the past.

“To put this into perceptive, we’ve potentially saved 441 lives – we’ve only got 500 staff in our organisation, so we’ve essentially given blood that could saved just about everyone in our organisation.”

On Monday, council held a lunch for its employees at Town Hall to celebrate their efforts.

Cr Murray said staff don’t often get to collectively celebrate achievements, but this was a special occasion

"We feel that 441 lives saved through the efforts of our staff is something to be celebrated,” he said.