From the steak to the snack, Avis cuts supplies

It is the administrator of the Avis in Busto and Olona Valley himself, Giorgio Trombetti, who recognizes what donors have been observing since a few months. “We passed from steak and Marsala to the need of begging a snack”, he says smiling, rethinking when he himself started to donate blood in the 70s. But today, also the Associazione Volontari Italiani Sangue must deal with the spending review.

A large part of the cuts “are about the transfusion centre”, continues the administrator, “but also for the donors themselves there are news concerning the breakfast.” It has been a while that steak and Marsala had been substituted by two sandwiches and fruit juices. Then, with the time, the abundant ready-sliced salami has been reduced more and more until when one of the two sandwiches became a snack. And with the last cuts, fruit juices have disappeared and the breakfast bag must be asked for and taken from the administration office. “We need to find them”, Trombetti says, “almost to implore them, unfortunately.” For the future, however, we do not forecast nothing good. In fact, with the last measures of the parliament “new cuts of an additional 10 or 15% are expected, we will see.”

If on one hand money decreases drastically, on the other hand donors continue to grow. In 2012 “ we reached 4,800 donors, for a total of about 8,300 donations” with a boost on 2011 of “one hundred donations”. The most positive aspect of these last years “is the incredible increase of young people, especially eighteen-year-old.” The majority of the new blood donors, in fact, are recruited in schools, thanks to an intense awareness campaign. And there is more. “We are seeing a remarkable increase in young women”, says Trombetti, “who have to deal with a big handicap: the weight.” By law, in fact, donors must weigh more than 50 kg and “it isn’t difficult to find girls below this threshold” and who, because of this, must be excluded. Hopefully, one day, by cutting so much, donors will not be forced to bring their own breakfast.