It’s the height of summer vacation season and for a lot of families, that means it’s time to travel to new and exciting places. For others, a chance to set up camp in an old favourite.
An unfortunate side effect of all that extra traffic on B.C. highways is that it means Canadian Blood Services’ demand for donors is once again at a seasonal high.
Langley Township firefighters answered the call earlier this month, hosting a blood donation clinic and issuing a challenge to their comrades in Abbotsford to do the same.
My first attempt in a number of years to donate blood last fall was at a similar event.
It ended almost as quickly as it began.
At a CBS donor clinic, one of the first of many stops between the front door and the chair involves a mini-bloodletting, where donors’ iron levels are checked.
And it was here that my attempt to give the gift of life came to a screeching halt, as the technician glanced at the number on her screen, thanked me for my time and pointed me politely toward the exit.
In fact, of the four of us who stood around chatting together that morning as we waited to be called, all were dismissed — three for having low iron levels and one for reasons related to blood pressure.
I had been a semi-regular, if not frequent, blood donor during my college days, but after graduation, work and life got in the way, and my donations grew fewer and further between.
Canadian Blood Service’s change from drop-in to by-appointment donations had put an end to my habit of donating whenever I passed a clinic, had the time and hadn’t given too recently to be eligible.
A few attempts to book an appointment met with conflicts and subsequent cancellations.
The decision to get a tattoo set back my eligibility to donate by another six months. Eventually, I got out of the habit, altogether.
Anyone who’s donated blood knows that it is, by necessity, a long and involved process — one that can take an hour or more to complete.
It’s not always easy to make the time but, then again, excuses don’t save many lives.
The need for blood was revealed to me in an unexpected way a couple Saturdays ago, as I joined a group of women for an outdoor concert in White Rock.
One friend’s sister called to say she would make the drive out from West Vancouver to join us. That’s not all that unusual, except that she had been in the hospital earlier in the week, her chronic lung condition sapping her energy among its other effects.
But that evening Mandy felt fantastic.
A blood transfusion had given her renewed energy and her delight at being out, enjoying life for the first time in ages was evident.
Approximately every minute of every day somebody in Canada, like Mandy, needs blood, and it takes more than 100,000 donors each year to meet that need.
The wide range of safety measures that have been put into place to protect both donors and potential recipients, means the pool CBS can draw from is a lot smaller than the adult population at large.
But the number of units it can take to help a single person is staggering. According to CBS’s website, up to five donors are needed to get one person through heart surgery.
It takes eight donors a week to treat someone fighting leukemia and as many as 50 donors to save a single car crash victim.
It’s a numbers problem that can only be solved one pint at a time.
It’s in us to give, but it’s up to all of us to make the effort.