Chairman David introduced our guest Speaker for tonight Rachel Gleeson from the Australian Red Cross.

“This year is the Australian Red Cross century celebrations (1914-2014) and Rachel whom works within the area of community engagement informed us of the interesting history that this wonderful organisation is celebrating.

International Red Cross has been around for 150 years and was originally founded by a Swiss Banker in 1859.

The target of this organisation is to focus on the most vulnerable in our society and throughout the years although the organisations has new ways to help people it has the same motto of ‘people helping people’.

Starting with the horrors of war those many years ago the Australian Red Cross Branch started around World War 1 and in 1920 we saw the first Blood Transfusion service commence.

The three recognisable symbols that we see all around the world- the red cross, the red crescent and the red diamond unites and mobilizes the power of Humanity. Today such as the blood service we see the Australian Red Cross still involved in patient transport,

Telecross (a phone call a day to make sure your OK), and a leader in International Aid throughout the Asia Pacific area.

The Humanitarian is the quarterly magazine of the Australian Red Cross.

Rachel reminded us of the gift of giving blood and shared that 1 in 3 people will need a transfusion of a blood product- with the majority being due to Cancer followed by trauma.”

Thank you Rachel