Patients dependent on plasma donations for survival may soon find the supply has run dry.
The Blood Service says it's on the cusp of a shortage and warns it needs 40,000 new donors to meet demand.
If they don't, they'll be forced to compete on the global blood market for the first time.
Plasma recipient Georgia Morgan's a pretty normal Kiwi kid - but it almost wasn't to be.
"I got sick in year 1 and it felt really scary because I had to go to hospital," she said.
Georgia's family didn't know what was wrong with her. Neither did the doctors.
"You've got these little kids and you just want them to bounce back - and it was pretty terrifying at the time. Nothing was working," her father Brad Morgan said.
Finally Georgia was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease. It's rare and can lead to debilitating heart issues.
The cure? Plasma. Brad slept by her bed for a week while she got the treatment.
"From there she slowly recovered - the fever didn't return and then she returned to her normal self," he said.
That's why plasma's called liquid gold by the blood service - and it's becoming a hot commodity.
"Demand is going up in New Zealand around 10 percent a year which is really significant," NZ Blood Service chief medical officer Sarah Morley said.
An ageing population and more advanced treatments have contributed to that demand. To meet that demand the Blood Service is asking for 40,000 new donors in the next 12 months.
If that target isn't met, it says New Zealand might be forced to compete for plasma products on the global market for the first time.
"We're relatively vulnerable to prices going up and to availability becoming much more limited each year," Morley said.
And if New Zealand's outbid on the global market, she warned it becomes "much more difficult to access product for our patients".
In Georgia's case, if she hadn't got it, Kawasaki disease would have given her heart issues for life.
"It doesn't bear thinking about - a kid or an adult not being able to exercise to any great degree or run around with their mates," Brad said.
"So just incredibly grateful it worked and there was plasma product available to us."
And with that supply under threat, the Blood Service has a simple message.
"We really want help from all those wonderful potential donors out there. We believe we can do it, we just need people to step up and join our whānau," Morley said.
Georgia also has a message: "Thank you for donating plasma to all the kids who got sick."
Hoping more donors will mean more kids can tackle their dreams too.
