This article was originally published in the May 2023 edition of Héma-Québec’s Magazine. All issues of the Magazine are available here.

Alexis, volunteer and organizer of Plasmattaque

Students plasmattack!

Plasma donating is on the rise in university settings thanks to the Plasmattaque initiative, launched at the Université de Sherbrooke by engineering student Alexis Rioux-Chevalier.

During the first edition of this friendly competition, held in fall 2021, he had invited students from his faculty to compete with those from the faculties of law and medicine to find out which ones would manage to wrack up the most plasma donations over a two-week period. The result proved to be much better than he expected: the initial target of 40 donations was shattered with a total of 178 donations!

Bolstered by that success, Alexis expanded the competition to all faculties of his university the next year, once again exceeding the projections by reaching a peak of 239 donations. This contribution is by no means insignificant: the Héma-Québec Donation Centre in Sherbrooke had its best donation numbers when Plasmattaque was running.  

Beyond the numbers, the most important contribution of an activity like this is mainly its ability to educate young adults about the existence and importance of plasma donating. Although a majority of the public is familiar with the essential role of blood donating, that of plasma remains unknown. Plasma is the liquid part of blood that carries its various components, namely red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Plasma is used particularly in the manufacture of immunoglobulins, specialized medications that are increasingly used for treating autoimmune diseases.  

First introduced to the importance of blood donating by his father and by his friends at CEGEP, Alexis Rioux-Chevalier later discovered plasma donating, which he has been doing regularly since the age of eighteen. Eager to become more involved, he began by setting up small initiatives when he entered university, first soliciting a few people from his circle of friends, before expanding his process to faculty associations through Plasmattaque.  

Having also been one of Héma-Québec’s youth ambassadors for the past two years, Alexis intends to expand the scope of his contest to other university institutions across Québec. His efforts are well underway, as evidenced by the fact that the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi and Université Laval are in the running to take part in the third edition of Plasmattaque, which will take place in November. Why stop at such a great momentum? Universities in the Montreal area are also looking to enhance what may soon resemble a real university-based Olympiad for plasma donating.

Plasmattaque is above all a fun challenge with the objective of encouraging as many people as possible to donate plasma and to feel justified pride in participating in a good cause. As with blood, donating plasma can save lives. It also carries high stakes because Québec is far from self-sufficient in meeting its plasma needs. We continue to rely on foreign suppliers, which account for about 70% of our supply. The objective is to raise our self-sufficiency to over 40% in the coming years.  

Hats off to Alexis, whose Plasmattaque initiative contributes to these efforts and that, we hope, will inspire other citizens to donate, and even set up their own projects to encourage plasma donating!