If you've donated blood in Bermuda anytime in the last 44 years, chances are you've met nurse Barbara Cooper.

Mrs. Cooper, 76, is one of the many Bermuda Red Cross volunteers who have kept the blood flowing for locals in need of life-saving transfusions.

She and several other volunteers will soon be retiring from the Blood Donor Centre at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, when the centre switches to paid staff.

Betsie Lombard, director of Blood Transfusion Services thanked the volunteers, but said the change was necessary to meet new accreditation requirements and international best practices.

"It is time for the change," said Mrs. Cooper. "But I will miss it."

Mrs. Cooper was born in Canada and first came to Bermuda in 1955 to work as a nurse.

"When I came in 1955 they were taking blood in the Emergency Department.

"I worked in the operating room. The operating room nurses used to go down to Emergency and assist with the blood donations. We gave blood as well."

She said this meant she had been a volunteer in blood services at the hospital for 54 years, 44 years of that time was with the Bermuda Red Cross as a nursing reserve volunteer.

Mrs. Cooper said the equipment used to draw donor blood has changed somewhat since then.

"They had glass bottles and rubber tubing in those days," she said. "The bottles could break, and with the rubber tubing, there was much more chance of blood reaction.

"It was all sterlised, but you would still get some remnants in the tubing, even if it was sterlised. But that is very much passe. Today we have all the up-to-date equipment."

In 1965, she witnessed local medical history when Ronald E. Shaw did one of the first mass blood groupings at City Hall.

This was done to record the blood groups of prospective donors in Bermuda.

"There had never been any record prior to that of prospective donors and their blood groups," said Mrs. Cooper.

"When they opened the new blood donor centre here in the hospital in 1965, they asked the Bermuda Red Cross if they would provide the nurses to operate it, and I have been with them ever since," said Mrs. Cooper. "So it has been about 44 years."

She thought people might be a little more willing to give blood today than they were in the 1960s because of community education projects.

"There has been more advertising and more promotion and certainly more need," she said. "I think people realise the need more today than they used to.

"Of course, the population has increased too, so naturally you would get more need because of that."

Unfortunately, only three percent of Bermuda's population are regular blood donors, compared to five percent in other jurisdictions.

Mrs. Cooper herself has donated blood at least twice or more a year during her long career.

"I have reached the magic age, 70, where I can't donate any longer," she said.

One thing she said hadn't changed in all that time was the level of pain.

"I never considered it painful, ever," she said. "Half of the problem of people not wanting to donate is that they are afraid of needles."

Mrs. Cooper said from the time she was a tiny child growing up in Canada she wanted to be a nurse.

"All my dolls were always sick," she joked. "And I had to look after them. It was in my genes, I guess.

"My mother had wanted to be a nurse, but in her day nursing wasn't as easy to get into as it was in my day."

Mrs. Cooper said her first patient in nursing school was an orange.

"It was a practice session during my training," she said. "The real thing was quite different, although they tried to convince us it wouldn't be any different."

Mrs. Cooper said one of the most frightened donors she'd ever seen was the late Progressive Labour Party (PLP) Minister Nelson Bascome who donated blood for the first time recently to help promote the blood donor centre.

"He was very proud of himself afterwards, though," said Mrs. Cooper. "When people are frightened, you talk them through it."

Mrs. Cooper will still be on call for emergency clinics, when extra help is needed.

"I will also be helping the promotion of blood donation," said Mrs. Cooper.

It was partly Mrs. Cooper's idea to move to paid staff.

Dr. Lombard said: "Barbara asked us to look at moving to paid staff, because fewer and fewer volunteers were available to meet current certification standards," said Dr. Lombard. "The volunteer group was getting older and older.

"We realised we wanted to go for accreditation. Currently the Blood Donor Centre is accredited by Joint Commission International (JCI), but we are also seeking accreditation from the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB).

"We need to comply best practices and have people employed by the hospital to work in the donor centre."

Dr. Lombard said the hospital had been very lucky with their volunteers over the years .

"We are lucky because the nurses we have in there are extremely people-oriented and kind. The paid nurses will hopefully continue the feeling of homeliness that the volunteers started and established there."

However, a few volunteers who meet current certification standards will remain onboard.

"The camaraderie that is there will hopefully continue," said Dr. Lombard.

Mrs. Cooper graduated from St. John General Hospital School of Nursing in St. John, New Brunswick, affiliated with Montreal General Hospital.

She came to Bermuda when she saw an advertisement in the Canadian Nurse Magazine.

"Three of us came together," Mrs. Cooper said. "We thought we would work our way around the world. Bermuda was to be the first stop. All three of us are still here, so it was the first and last stop. I don't think any of us regretted that."

Her companions were Alda Lawrence and Ann Townsend.

Now that she won't be spending so much time at the Blood Donor Centre, she has rejoined the Pink Ladies, a group of volunteers who help in the hospital, and she will be working more with P.A.L.S., which helps cancer patients.

Dr. Lombard said the hospital was very grateful for the work that all of the many blood donor volunteers had done over the years.

"We are, however, very grateful that the Bermuda Red Cross will continue to provide volunteers for emergency blood clinics and promote blood donation in the community.

"The continued support of the Bermuda Red Cross will ensure that our Blood Donor Centre will continue to save lives in Bermuda in all eventualities."