Blood keeps husband alive

They have been married for 33 years and now a woman is giving her blood to her husband.

Carole Brieske has been donating blood for the past five years and is set to donate plasma too. It is important to her because without plasma, her husband Trevor wouldn’t survive.

Trevor Brieske, 60, has an immune deficiency and has to get plasma medication twice a week. ‘‘Before he started getting the plasma, we thought he was dying,’’ Carole Brieske said.

Trevor Brieske has been getting plasma for 25 years, as he is unable to fight off infections. Before doctors realised he needed plasma, he caught pneumonia and then got it again a couple of weeks later. ‘‘I thought that seemed strange. There was something not right,’’ Trevor Brieske said.

He was told by a doctor that plasma would help, but that he would need it for the rest of his life. He had been getting it intravenously three times a week, but that was no longer working and he began getting sick again.

Trevor Brieske now gets it put into his stomach, which he has done at his Dannevirke home twice a week by his wife. She said seeing a three-month supply of the medication at home convinced her to donate some of her own.

‘‘Once I saw the bulk amount of plasma at home that made me think about where it really comes from. It made me think about the people who donate. I always gave blood and thought that was enough. I hope to encourage other people to come forward. [Trevor] is walking proof that it works.’’

Despite needing plasma, Trevor Brieske has been a volunteer firefighter for 29 years and has also beaten cancer. ‘‘He’s tough,’’ Carol Brieske said.

World Blood Donor Day is on Wednesday.