Limestone Coast residents rolling up their sleeves to donate blood are breaking records.

During Australian Red Cross Lifeblood’s visit to Mount Gambier in May, a record number of daily blood donations was made.

Lifeblood spokesperson Jessica Willet said 117 donations were made on May 4.

“This was both a record for Mount Gambier and also a record for our pop-up donor centre, which travels to regional areas for blood donations,” she said.

“Not quite an SA record as our fixed centres are much larger so naturally can accommodate more people at once, but an incredible record for our pop-up centre.

“To put it into context, we aim to collect around 62 blood donations a day when we visit Mount Gambier, so that was an extra 55 donations.”

Ms Willet said 371 donations were made in Mount Gambier when Lifeblood visited two weeks ago.

“Although we did not break a daily record this visit, more donations were made across the week than during our May visit (359),” she said.

Ms Willet congratulated the community on their record-breaking number of blood donations.

“117 blood donations in one day is an incredible effort,” she said.

“Every blood donation helps save three lives, which means the local community helped save more than 350 lives in just a single day.

“Blood donation is so easy to do and all it takes is an hour of time.

“One in three people will need donated blood in their lifetime, but currently only one in 30 donates.

“We’d like to thank everyone who has recently donated at our Mount Gambier pop-up centre for their lifesaving efforts.

“We hope to break more records during our next visit in November.”