Parents of young children affected by cancer have joined together to boost blood supplies and break current misconceptions about donations.
A survey by the Australian Red Cross Blood Service reveals that almost half of people who don't donate believe that road trauma is the main reason why someone needs blood.
But in reality, road trauma accounts for just two percent of the country's total blood usage.
Cancer patients are the nation's largest users of blood, accounting for 34 percent of need.
Patients with anaemia make up 19 percent of demand, while open heart surgery and burns victims account for 18 percent.
"I think there's this misconception that all of the blood that people donate gets used for trauma victims and things like that, but about 30 to 50 percent of all donations are actually required for people going through chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment," said Dr Bryony Ross, Paediatric Haematologist, at The Children's Hospital at Westmead.
Today at the Parramatta Donor Centre, several parents of children with cancer donated their own blood to raise awareness and boost supplies.
"I've always wanted to give blood, but I suppose it hits home when your own children have to have blood," said first time donor, Belinda Hendieh.
At the Children's Hospital at Westmead, 12,500 bags of blood was needed last year for their patients.
It was made possible with the support of 20,000 donors.
"The chemotherapy that we give and particularly other things like radiotherapy affect the kids ability to make their own blood cells and so they literally wouldn't survive, without donations from the public," said Dr Bryony Ross.
Roman Djo, 3, from Sydney's west is undergoing treatment for leukaemia and has already needed 27 bags of red blood cells and platelets to help with clotting.
Platelets only have a shelf life of five days.
"After every round of chemo he always needs one or two blood transfusions and the same with platelets," said Tasha Djo, Roman's mother.
