A Little Goes a Long Way (Blood, that is!)

There are endless possibilities of “good” that you can contribute to the world. We often think of the big things that make an impact but there are a ton of small selfless actions to consider. One thing that I am dedicated to is being a blood donor. Committing my body to a process that takes less than an hour a few times a year (eligibility is about every 56 days) might seem like a small “good” but it can really mean the difference between life and death for someone in need.

Being a parent of a child living with sickle cell disease puts the cause even nearer and dearer to my heart. Sometimes patients living with sickle cell need transfusion therapies to increase the oxygen-carrying capacity in their blood and reduce complications of a pain crisis. Blood donations are critical to so many people living with sickle cell disease. So critical in fact, that the American Red Cross has an ongoing campaign to encourage African Americans to donate blood. Because there are more than 600 antigens that are unique to racial and ethnic groups, blood donations from African Americans are vital for transfusions for African Americans living with sickle cell disease. According to the American Red Cross, 1 in 3 African American blood donors is an antigen match for a patient with sickle cell*. Wow!

April 1st is named Dr. Charles R. Drew Day (if you don’t know him as a part of Black History, look him up!). In honor of him or someone special, will you commit to this small selfless act of kindness? Of course, everyone is not eligible or able to donate blood but it’s worth finding out if you are. What do you have to lose? Your body will make more! 🙂

There are a bunch of resources out there if you want to learn more about blood donation. Here are few to get you started:
https://www.redcrossblood.org/
https://www.aabb.org/for-donors-patients/give-blood
https://www.oneblood.org/special-donations/directed-donations.stml
https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/education/blood/donation

*American Red Cross: https://www.redcrossblood.org/donate-blood/blood-types/diversity/african-american-blood-donors.html



Peace,

Chanel