Simon Braun, or Simmo, as he likes to be called, is inspiring a nation to donate blood or plasma. When you meet him, you can't help but instantly like him and admire what he is trying to achieve.

Lifeblood's Scott Morrison summed it up easily, "Look, Simmo is just a bloody great human. He is travelling around the country, but he is stopping in Lismore. He knows how important community is here."

Earlier this year, Simmo purchased a caravan for himself, three children and a friend to travel to every Red Cross Lifeblood Centre in the country. All 78 of them. Although Simmo mentioned, there could be 80 because two more may open before he finishes his journey.

It was August when the caravan was hitched to the car, and Simmo's selfless Bloody Good Tour began. It was a quick trip to Cairns and then a slower trip down the east coast. Lismore is donor centre number 20.

"I've been donating for 25 years, and I had some big changes in my life last year, but I kept donating. It kind of made me realise that so many people live in this busy culture these days, just head down, and we're so focused on our own lives and we're busy in this bubble. But I think that culture is really toxic.

"I mean, no one thinks that donating blood is a bad idea, but only 3% of Australians donate. And so for those other people, come and spend an hour in a donor centre. Sit down, stop, enjoy your life and save some other lives while you're doing that. I think that's really important.

"So, I was doing a regular donation at Town Hall (on the Central Coast), talking to a nurse about all the donations I'd done in different centres, and she said to me, you should do all of them. Just this throwaway comment, and in bed that night, kind of laying there, staring at the ceiling, it's echoing through my head. Do all of them? Do all of them? And I thought, You know what? This 'Bloody Good Tour' could be a great way to take my kids on an adventure, teach them to have the courage to do something big, serve the community and get a new line of messaging out there to the public. Doing good, feels good. And get out of your busyness and try something like this."

Simmo's children are two, six and eight and enjoying van life. He also has an aide to do social media and help out with the children when he is donating, doing workshops and various media commitments to help increase the number of Australians that donate.

"We're seeing places I've never even heard of before. It's great, and they're loving it. We're balancing distance education with a lot of life schooling, and for them, getting out and meeting other people and seeing donor centres and people doing good to serve their community, it's been really powerful."

Twenty donor Centres from Cairns means a lot of travel and a lot of conversations with a wide range of people from differing communities. In Australia, there are about 10 million eligible donors; however, only 500,000 donate. Simmo explained the two reasons people do not donate blood or plasma.

"The two biggest barriers are a fear of needles. And to that, I say that you're going to need needles at some point in your life, whether it's a vaccination, a blood test, you go into hospital, you will need needles. You might as well overcome that fear here in the happiest clinical environment. This is where the nurses do 2000 jabs a year. They smile at you, they look after you, and there's awesome refreshments afterwards.

"The other one is, I'm just too busy. I get it. You know, I've been part of this busy culture, but one in three Aussies will need blood at some point in their life. So you will know someone who is going to have the need for blood. So, that need for blood is going to smack you in the face at some point. I think it's better to get on the front foot, donate and contribute back into that community so the blood is available when it's needed. You also get that warm fuzzy feeling that doing good, feels good. And it costs you nothing. In fact, it costs you less than nothing because you get a free lunch here. The milkshakes are good, and so are the sausage rolls."

Mayor Steve Krieg, a 30+ donor himself, stopped by to say thanks for stopping at Lismore.

"It's amazing. You know, you hear of a lot of different people doing amazing, extraordinary things, cycling around the country, or running across the Nullabor, but this is the first time that I've heard of someone visiting every single blood donation centre in Australia and donating as he goes. What an incredible effort.

"We're standing here in the blood bank now, and you know how critical this service is. The key point is you never know when you might need it, so those who can donate should donate as often as possible."

On the donor leaderboard for 2024, Lismore City Council is at number five with 139 donations.

"We've got a bit of work to do to get to that number one spot, but it's something that the council actively encourages, to get their staff to come down to the blood bank and donate. As I said, you just don't know when you or a family member or a friend or someone that you know might need a blood donation and we can see from their advertising that even an Olympic athlete like Michael Klim, who everyone knows and loves, is relying on plasma donations.

It was a coincidence yesterday that Sharon Pratten was donating again. This time, she was celebrating her 200th donation.

(Sharon getting prepped for her plasma donation)

"It feels really good. It's something you can do to help people, and it doesn't cost you anything, and it's a free checkup every two weeks to give plasma. You don't have to pay $90 for the doctor to get your blood pressure taken or to count your blood hemoglobin level.

For Sharon, it has been a life of donating blood and plasma, starting at 16 (in the days when the age was 16. It has moved to 18 now).

"They put a call out for A positive blood, and I always thought I'd like to donate blood because my grandfather donated. He had a rare blood group. They said, you're 16, and if your mother signs it, you can donate. Mum signed it. I think the only time I had off was when I was pregnant and when I had the kids and was feeding them.

Simmo said each donor centre is unique and tailored to the local community.

"There's is I guess, a standard national type footprint, each one's unique. So, they they tailor it to their local community and the culture that the staff have. There are some differences that you see. One of the great things here at Lismore is the donor legend speech bubble, right? Where milestone donors shout out their reason why they donate.

(Simmo showing off the Donor Legends board at the Lismore Donor Centre)

"Each centre has something a little bit different that they do, or maybe they have different refreshments; like Bundaberg has the ginger beer running their refreshments for donors with the factory next door. It's been quite cool to see that. But one thing that's consistent through it all is the staff are happy they're working in a great place. And all the donors are good, generous people that are coming in.

"The stories that I get are so unique and different, but they've all got that same thread through it. They're all bloody good humans. They just want to help. They're just doing the right thing, and they feel good about it."

You, too, can feel good about it by booking an appointment at the Lismore Blood Donor Centre at Level 1/26 Bounty Street. Call 13 14 95, jump online at https://www.lifeblood.com.au/ or download the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood app from the App Store or Google Play Store. You can even join the Bloody Good Tour team, just ask the person you speak to at the desk when you arrive.

Donating blood takes less than an hour, while donating plasma is less than 90 minutes.