Church strikes rich vein

By Nicole Williams
CHURCH of Christ members joined forces to donate blood in support of church members battling life-threatening illnesses.
More than 60 members for the Dandenong congregation attended a blood donor centre on 18 June to donate blood.
Dandenong congregation organiser Kate Roxas said it was very successful and more people turned up than expected.
“Overall it went really, really well,” Ms Roxas said. “We were expecting only 50 people to come but more people came on the day and donated.”
The number of donors nearly doubled this year and it could be put down to how the congregation had been touched by cancer recently.
“We have a little girl named Sophia (2) who was diagnosed with leukaemia this year,” Ms Roxas said.
“A few people have been diagnosed with cancer over the last few years.
“It was an inspiration for a lot of people to donate and people who weren’t really thinking about it before.”
Group donation organiser and Church of Christ member John Villanueva said the Dandenong congregation was the first to begin group donations in 2006 and it had grown since them.
“We started with 40 donors and I’m happy to say that it had grown rapidly from there,” he said.
Overall 160 members from congregations in Dandenong, Casey, Hume, Hobsons Bay, Wyndham and Brimbank donated blood.
“Next year we are hoping to organise for 500 people to donate,” Mr Villanueva said.