giving blood

Giving blood doesn't just benefit recipients. Regardless of age, donating blood offers many benefits for donors. It lets you:

Make a difference in your community by helping others.
Develop a sense of commitment to and connection with your local community.
Be assured that adequate supplies of blood are available for you, as well as your family and others.
Check your blood pressure, temperature, hemoglobin and pulse rate every time you give.
Join a group of special volunteers.
The demand for blood never lets up. Every day, thousands of people need donations to live. Before they can receive it, donated blood must go through time-consuming tests. Then, it must be used relatively quickly or it will perish-whole blood for instance, is no longer usable after 42 days. As a result, maintaining an adequate blood supply is a challenge-especially when a disaster occurs, which may cause the need for blood to soar. The only way to meet demand is to have regular donations from healthy volunteers.

If you're healthy, your body-which has between 10 and 12 pints of blood-can easily spare about a pint, the amount that's collected at a donation. Because the body begins replacing donated blood immediately; most people can give blood every eight weeks.


DO YOU DONATE BLOOD? IF SO, HOW OFTEN? WHAT MADE YOU BEGIN DONATING?