Volunteer Stories

I have worked as a volunteer facilitating blood drives for several years and have been a blood donor myself since I was 17 years old. I have been donating blood for 40 years now and will continue to do so as long as I can.
I have always believed it is important to donate blood and help people who's lives could be saved or who would benefit in some way from receiving blood that has been donated.
Last year my father had 2 major back surgeries and was the recipient of several units of life saving blood transfusions. Right now I am watching my daughter recieve unit after unit of life saving blood and platelet transfusions.
A few days ago my daughter was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) and her blood levels were so low that she had to have 4 units of platelets and 8 units of blood within a 48 hour period so that the doctors could even begin to administer the chemo therapy necessary to kill the cancer in her blood. She will continue to need more blood transfusions as she goes through the process of dealing with the leukemia and chemo therapy in the pursuit of remission and regaining her health.
Remission would not even be a possibility if it wasn't for the fact that someone cared enough to donate their blood so that she would be able to receive that blood and have the possiblity of her life being saved!
She is the mother of two young children, who will need her for years to come, she is a wife with a husband who needs her, she is a daughter who is a vital part of the lives of her parents...she is only 33 years old and has a lot of life yet to live!
I am thanking the Lord for each and every person who has selflessly and generously given blood that others might receive it and live!

June 13, 2012 was a day that changed our life. My husband, David, was diagnosed with end stage renal failure and had to start dialysis immediately. After an emergency access port was put in - we started the journey of dialysis. After a week of receiving Dialysis he started getting VERY sick - June 28 he went to the hospital....continually getting worse and worse. He had contracted a staph infection. It went to his heart valve and he had to have emergency valve replacement surgery. That surgery took close to 40 units of blood and blood products over the course of the next few days. After 4 weeks in the hospital and 2 weeks in rehab he was able to come home, and has had to have a couple of units of blood since then. The company blood drive was in his honor, "I GAVE FOR DAVE"....there was a huge outpouring of our fellow workers. So everyone - whether you have a Dave, or a Tammy to give for.....there is somebody's Dave or Tammy that needs you to give. Someone that is loved needs your help. Give up a little of yourself and become the hero.

The first time I ever donated blood was my first year at college. I didn't go with anyone but I was determined to help save lives. I felt pretty ill afterwards but I continued to donate again and again. Some donation processes are better than other but I have reached 1 and one half gallons of blood donated and now I never miss the chance to donate. 3 weeks until I am eligible again!
The fact that I am helping people and saving lives makes me come back, the wonderful people that work these drives make me enjoy the process all the more.

Much is expected of those to whom much has been given
I was killed in an automobile accident late on Mother’s Day 1988 while returning from Charleston to Norfolk where the ship I commanded was in overhaul. I didn’t know that until weeks after the event. I do remember waking up in a dark room, I was cold, in incredible pain, and could hear screams from another room. I laid there for some time and a woman dressed in white, I assume a nurse, came into the room. I asked “Where am I?” She responded “Who are you?” My answer satisfied her and she told me that I was in the intensive care unit of Norfolk Sentara Hospital and that I had been seriously injured in an accident. My immediate concern resolved, I went to sleep and in the morning a team of doctors assembled and decided that I was sufficiently stable to be transferred to the Navy Hospital in Portsmouth, VA. I found out later from friends that my patient status had been “He died” three times in the week before I woke up.
Support from family and friends and I am sure blood donors helped me battle through the serious injuries and multiple surgeries to confound those who predicted that even though I wouldn’t stay dead, I would never walk again. I left that hospital 29 days after the accident and after a relatively short period of rehabilitation on limited duty, continued my Navy career, retiring as a Captain from command of a base in CA in 1995.
It was shortly after taking command in July 1993, that I became eligible to donate blood. For the prior 25+ years, I had spent so much time at sea and traveling to foreign ports that I had never been outside of the deferral window for having taken anti-malarial drugs. I started donating in Riverside, CA on an every eight-week basis as a way to give back for what I had received during my recovery. Soon, others from my base were also donating. When I retired in 1995 and moved to WA State, I continued to donate whole blood.
One day one of the nurses at the Richland donation center told me about apheresis and I was hooked or hooked-up on a regular basis. Every two weeks I was connected while watching an education DVD or movie. My iron and platelet counts are high and support triple unit donations on a regular basis. Except for a year plus deferral after cancer surgery in 2007, I have hit my max donor target every year. Why do I still do it at 65? I can and it matters. Much is expected of those to whom much has been given. This is just one way that I work to give back to the community of all the great gifts that I have been given. One other item to note, I have had both hips and one knee replaced since 2000. My doctor is the same one that headed up the Navy team that put me back together in 1988 in VA. This serves as a constant reminder of why I should donate, Edward.

I started volunteering to donate blood at the age of 19, just because someone called me on the phone and asked. I kept it up all these years, many times without even thinking about why I did it. I am now 54, and since the death of my younger sister a little over a year ago, I have become more sensitive to the gift of life. I don't know who I help with my donation - I don't want to - but I now think "You know, this could be one of my family members." Distant or close, blood relative or not,what we choose to do with our lives - and our blood - makes a difference to someone who IS a close relative to someone else. How can I withhold this precious gift when my family has been, and may be in the future, in need of this life-saving resource?