Save a Life. Do it now.

I am going to take a bit of a different road than what I have here in the past. More of a serious note this time. I am going to challenge all of you to see either the American Red Cross, or Canadian Blood Services to learn how you can become a blood donor, or be signed up as an organ donor. Please do not take this challenge to mean that I believe you are more likely to suffer a tragic event being a motorcyclist. We have organs in our bodies that we can donate in life to save that of another.

Cancer is probably one of the most devastating words a person can hear when it is spoken in relation to one’s self or loved ones. Science has discovered many ways for our medical professionals to help us to beat Cancer and many other illnesses. Many Cancers and other diseases are treated with bone marrow transplants. The best option for a donor is that of a sibling, and second to that, a family member. However this is not always attainable. If no one in the family is a match, then they have to look outside the family circle. The chances of a match from an unrelated source is upwards of 1 in 750,000. Clearly these are poor odds.

So, for every person in the USA and Canada, who has an illness that required a bone marrow transplant, there may need to be 750, 000 people or more registered with the American Red Cross or Canadian Blood Services. Canada has approximately 35,000,000 people and the USA has, I believe, well over 350,000,000 people. So do the math. How many people are out there battling a disease that has a cure that is dependent on a bone marrow transplant?

Bone marrow matches basically run along racial lines. One might think that a person of mixed race has a far better chance of finding an unrelated match due to having two racial groups to pick from but that is not the case. In fact, it is about 10 fold worse. The odds have worsened dramatically. In this day and age, there are more infants born every day of mixed race. My own are two of them and fortunately they are healthy to date.

In 1988, I worked for a very large Canadian government department. My role at the time was in part Public Relations. One of my fellow employees was diagnosed with Leukemia. He had no bone marrow match within the family. My employer worked hand in hand with Canadian Blood Services predecessor, the Canadian Red Cross. The purpose was to educate and build up the Unrelated Bone Marrow Donor Registry in British Columbia. I was tasked with setting up an Information, Recruiting seminar in my city. At the time there were a few hundred registered and now there is 200,000 in Canada. 5 million world wide. But this is far short of what is needed. In the process of assisting setting up recruiting seminars, I myself registered. All that was required was consent, and a simple 2 vile blood sample.

In 1992 I was called for further testing. I had been identified as a potential donor to someone in need. To make a long story short, I had all it took to be a match for this person. The patient had Multiple Melanoma. I went through a few more blood test. And that is all it was. Finally the decision was made to go ahead to harvest the bone marrow from me and transplant it to the recipient. I was the 33rd unrelated donor in British Columbia at that time.

Seminars put on at registration drives indicated it was a bit of a painful process for the donor. I can absolutely tell you this was not the case. It was absolutely painless for me. And my experience has been echoed by many I have spoken to who have been donors. At the time it was customary to go into the hospital the night before, be harvested in the morning, and be held until the next morning. They removed approximately ¾ litre from me, most of which I believe was blood. I had donated a unit of blood to myself a few weeks prior, but that was not used. I understand that now the procedure is even shorter. The bone marrow replenishes itself in your system with in two weeks. I missed no work and suffered no ill effects, even short term. My recipient received this donation the next day. I sent a card along with the donation, and a couple letters were sent between the two of us through the Red Cross. This was done for confidentiality reasons.

This all took place in June of that year. I was about to go on the radio the following December as a spokesperson for the Canadian Red Cross and checked up on my recipient through the Red Cross. He had passed away two weeks previous to this. Due to the nature of my work, the agent with the Red Cross informed me of a little more that what people would normally hear. My recipient had picked up some sort of ailment from his environment, that his not yet strengthened immune system could fight off. I know my recipient was male, had a wife and two kids. Very similar situation to myself at home. That is all I knew of him. I did not even know if he lived in my country as the registry is world wide. He did pass away but the point is the transplant had worked. He lived from June to December. Had the transplant not been successful, he would have passed much earlier, so he did have a second chance at life. He had another 6 months of time with his family. And there was a substantial reason to believe it could have been decades longer.

I don’t know how to express how I felt about having done what I did. Words like proud, happy, excited, humbled, privileged just don’t seem to be appropriate. I challenge each and every one of you do step up to the plate and donate blood, platelets, and please, call your Red Cross or the Canadian Blood Service and do what you need to do to be registered with the Unrelated Bone Marrow Donner Registry in Canada or the National Marrow Donor Program in the USA. Those of you from other countries who subscribe to this site will have to research how to do this in your respective countries.

Blood. It is in you to give.

Thank you.

 

I've always wanted to donate, but unfortunately they don't want me to. I have Factory IV in my blood, which really wouldn't make for a good donation.

Honestly when I found out, I was devastated because I always wanted to donate my blood and organs. Whats the point of being ok with needles and not be able to use it for good? :frown:

 

Blood donor...

I donate blood regularly...I'm not sure about my organs...I don't remember ever signing anything saying it was ok to use them...but I wouldn't mind...

Good thread by the way...

 

A small amount of your time I am sure would be appreciated from time to time at the American Red Cross or your Cancer Society down there. Having said this, I have no idea what the present demands are on your time. But yes, I know how you may feel not being able to donate. My wife was unable to do so as well due to her size. She weighs in at just over 100lbs which is too small here. They said she needs all she has got, But she is the most fit individual I know so I think that she would do just fine.

 

Who knows, this could turn into a cause for us.

 

Very true!!

 

Im a blood donor

 

I never seem to find the time to actually donate blood, so I use my money to compensate. I make sure to donate financially to the local blood banks every year and get one or two new people to donate either blood or money to the cause.

 

Yup. I hear you. I don't donate blood near as much as I could or should. I am going to have to fix that. And you bet, the Red Cross also needs financial assistance. Donated blood has to be processed and that costs money. But on the other hand, you can't save a life with money alone. But keep up your generosity and try to make some time.

Thanks

 

I registered as an Organ Donor when I renewed my license for my M endorsement. If I die, I don't need my organs, which are only going to waste away/deteriorate anyway, they might as well serve some use.

I've been meaning to donate blood, if I find that I don't become dizzy afterwards (which would make me unable to ride, very few things can make me dizzy, but the things that do usually last) I'll make it a common practice.

I suppose we could use this as an opportunity to revamp the connotative meaning of "Donorcylists."

 

I donate Blood about once a year, I think you can do it more than that, but that's about what I have been averaging with my schedule. We have the RedCross come into work once a year and we do a drive and that is typically when I donate blood.

My PA license has show me as an Organ Donor for the 5 years I've lived in PA. It was one of the first boxes I checked when filling out the form for my new PA License when I moved over here. I was a long standing NJ donor as well.

 

Some peiople may react to the loss of blood by being light headed after donation. Here they almost chain you down after a donation and supply juice, coffee cookies and the like. That for some reason does not seem to bother me. And it is great to be registered as Organ Donner on your driver's licence. But that does not help when someone is in need of a Bone Marrow donation. This is a separate registry. Please consider making that call to the American Red Cross or Canadian Blood Services. You could end up being the one who saves the life of a child, or a child's mom or dad. Parents are important too. Who would want a child to grow up knowing a parent left them and we did not do all we could to prevent that?

Here in Canada, I believe they allow you to donate blood every 3 months. The Cancer Clinic told me that the Bone Marrow harvested from me would replenish itself in two weeks. I would suggest that blood would be similar. But I am not an expert on that and may be corrected.

Blood and Bone Marrow. Its in you to give.

 

Only..I'm proud to be a friend of such guys. I'm blood donor. I love you all.
Carmine.

 

I'm not opposed to donating organs, but I am really opposed to the stigma that you are given when you go into the ER in an emergency- there have been a couple of studies proving that if a patient has a donor sticker on their driver license, ER doctors do not fight as hard to keep the patient alive, and are quicker to pronounce death. that being said, I don't have the sticker, but should the situation happen where I'm dead, my loved ones can tell the doctors to hack me up. I would rather the docs fight and give their all, then give up just because I said it was ok to harvest......

 

Will do.

Hate to admit but been about 5 years since i gave blood.

I am however a donar, and encourage others to do the same...if i'm done with them and some one else can use them, thats a good thing.

Also ensure yout next of kin know you are an organ donar, the back of the card means nothing! your next of kin decides.

 

Reg,

I have to agree with you. I have found myself in the emergency ward many times. ( Should be more careful with myself but that is just being Randy.) I have nothing but praise for these working in ER, always around people who are hurting, sick or down and quick to complain about everything. And I am not criticizing those people because it is natural. ER people have a tremendous task in negative environment where more often than not, they are criticized rather than praised. Reg, and all of you in this field, I love you all and keep your head up. You are doing a fantastic job looking after us, many whom are there due to their own carelessness and negligence. My last trip to the ER I spent over 2 days there not knowing if I would walk again, no feeling below my hips ( not motorcycle related). All I cared about was me. All the ER people cared about was me. There were a lot of people around that cared about nothing but me. I should have been in a ward but there were no beds. The ER people were the ones that made this stay the best it could be under the circumstances.Every time I have been there, or had a stay in the hospital, upon release, there were flowers or copious quantities of Tim Horton's doughnuts delivered by me or someone on my behalf with a card of thanks.

ER people are part of the team of professionals I refer to in my initial post. I am confident in their professionalism here in Canada and have no reason to believe they are any different in the USA.

Reg, thank you from the bottom of my heart. And I stand by my request for all to register with the Unrelated Bone Marrow Donner Registry and Blood Donner Clinics.

You can mak a difference. A huge difference