Because a Friend on Mine Got His Life Saved Thanks to Blood Transfusions, I Now Give Blood Regularly
When I was in my twenties, I gave blood three times. Very sporadically. In Québec, the Red Cross was then responsible for managing blood collection and the provincial blood bank.
Then the "Blood Scandal" pushed me away from giving blood. Eventually, the Red Cross lost this role within our health care system. But this is not what I want to write about.
A few years ago, a friend of mine got a very aggressive form of cancer. We were not close friends, but we knew each other from university. I found out that he had been away due to sickness when I called at his work. I finally got a hold of him and we met over a coffee. He told me his story; how he had gone from 180 pounds down to 123; how the doctor told him that he had a one percent chance of getting through this alive; how, thanks to over three hundred blood transfusions, he had survived. Eventually, he became involved with Hema-Québec. His story made me start giving blood again. It's that simple.
Since then, I have given blood thirty-one times. And each time I can go back, I go. My goal is to give blood one hundred times before I'm sixty. I figure that I'm lucky to be healthy; I might as well share this.
I went today and I can go back again in fifty seven days, which means November 29.
Do you have stories like this one, involving a relative or a friend, that got you to decide to take action and make a difference?
When I was in my twenties, I gave blood three times. Very sporadically. In Québec, the Red Cross was then responsible for managing blood collection and the provincial blood bank.
Then the "Blood Scandal" pushed me away from giving blood. Eventually, the Red Cross lost this role within our health care system. But this is not what I want to write about.
A few years ago, a friend of mine got a very aggressive form of cancer. We were not close friends, but we knew each other from university. I found out that he had been away due to sickness when I called at his work. I finally got a hold of him and we met over a coffee. He told me his story; how he had gone from 180 pounds down to 123; how the doctor told him that he had a one percent chance of getting through this alive; how, thanks to over three hundred blood transfusions, he had survived. Eventually, he became involved with Hema-Québec. His story made me start giving blood again. It's that simple.
Since then, I have given blood thirty-one times. And each time I can go back, I go. My goal is to give blood one hundred times before I'm sixty. I figure that I'm lucky to be healthy; I might as well share this.
I went today and I can go back again in fifty seven days, which means November 29.
Do you have stories like this one, involving a relative or a friend, that got you to decide to take action and make a difference?
posted by GRK at 9:36 p.m.
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