1960 - 1969:  Miracles and Milestones

Special Needs Community services were expanding and diversifying to support emerging community needs. The Red Cross Volunteer Tutor Scheme began in 65, founded by Dorothy Davis, director of the organisation’s NSW welfare service. The scheme gave assistance to children of ex-servicemen with educational problems. The volunteers went into schools by arrangement with Principal and the Department of Education and were carefully matched with a student. After a few years the program expanded to offer camps to the children. For the children of Australian servicemen in Vietnam, this was particularly appreciated. The war had taken a toll on the family lives of troops and this diversion was a welcome break for mothers and an exciting adventure for the children.

Hitting One Million In 1961 the Blood Transfusion Service in NSW collected its millionth donation, which would assist in a heart operation. How the world was changing: when the service had opened in Sydney 20 years earlier, it was to provide blood donors in the event of an air raid. In the same year there was another medical miracle. Doreen Parfitt from Sydney was one of eight known people in the world to have the extremely rare blood type called: Group OP.P.Tj(a) Negative. In August 61 she donated a pint of blood to help save the life of a gravely ill woman in France. Doreen’s donation was en route to Paris, in a refrigerated box within 24 hours of collection.