Hello

Hello,

My name is Mary Reddell and I want to tell you the wonders that donating blood can do. According to Carter BloodCare, 4.5 million American lives are saved each year by blood transfusions.

In Texas, I donated at Carter BloodCare, a donation center, for the last four years. And in that time I have donated over a gallon of blood in the 16 times I donated. However I would have donated over 21 times by now, however, I needed a severe blood transfusion due to a car wreck that happened in May. But you have to wait a year, according to Carter BloodCare, after a blood transfusion in order to donate again.

Did you know that one donation could save three lives? One donation is roughly a pint and weighs a little close to a pound. According to CarterBloodCare.org, there are 10 to 12 pints of blood in the human body. And when you donate, which takes less than an hour every eight weeks for whole blood, you donate about a pint and lose a pound of blood. Donating blood saves lives. Surgery patients use donated blood to help with keeping a steady heart rate and to replenish what they lost during surgery. Another thing is that donated blood goes to anyone who is in need of it. Your friends, your family, coworkers, military personnel, soldiers who fight for our freedom. But the sad thing is that less than 10% of the eligible donors, which is 37% of the US, are willing to donate. But every year, blood banks have shortages of blood supply and need more. Take a stand, donate an hour of your time to give blood, you’re saving your comrade’s life!

So if donating blood, makes someone, even you, a little happier, their day a little brighter, and their lives’ a little longer, what’s holding you back from making this wonderful decision to donate? I am horrified by needles, yet I try to put aside that fear to make someone’s life easier and healthier. And THAT! Makes everything okay.

 So I ask you, don’t let my story persuade you, let the lives you save by donating encourage you to take that step and save a life. I promise you, you WILL NOT regret it.