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Holiday Blood Donation
December 26, 2007
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Hundreds of people donate blood every day in Lee County. But unfortunately that’s
not enough
to keep the supply at a surplus. During the Holiday season the blood
supply is even at a shortage because of the lack of donors. By just pumping out
a few pints of blood you can save the lives of several people. Mandy Rider is a
technician with the Lee Memorial Health System Blood Centers. She says donated blood
can be used to help a variety of patients. “It can help for children that are in
Healthpark in the hospitals. It can be used for cancer patients. It could be for
trauma a victims in a car accident. You never know you could save your own life.”
Rachel Tramonte is a long-time blood donor and likes the fact that she knows the
blood she donates will not go too far. “The great thing about the Lee Memorial blood
mobile is that the blood stays within the community. Who knows this may help save
one of my friends or one of my family members or a neighbor I may not even know
about.” While the Lee Memorial Health System is always looking to increase its blood
supply, Mandy says the holidays provides one of the slowest times of year for donations.
“We’re always on a shortage particularly during the holiday season because people
forget. They’re all busy doing their holiday shopping and it slips their mind.”
But for donors like Rachel, there is no better time of the year to give the gift
of blood. “Money is always tight this time of year and I’m glad that I feel like
I can give in another way without you know shelling out big bucks. I can just go
lend my arm and lend my blood and save lives,” Rachel says. And the process of donating
isn’t time consuming or painful. Mandy says, “It’s relatively easy. You’re in and
out in about 30 minutes, it doesn’t hurt like all the hype most people think. It
just takes a few minutes of your time to save somebody’s life.” For more information
on how you can donate blood at a blood center or have the Blood Mobile visit your
workplace, you can call 239-334-5333. Donated blood can help save the lives of patients
with things like leukemia, anemia and several types of cancers. |
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