A different kind of Karma event
Donate blood and save a life.
We run monthly Karma classes at the studio on the last Friday of the month. The next Karma class is on Friday July 31. Kim will be leading the class and the donations will be for Byrony House.
Our Karma classes are about helping others in the community by raising funds for charities.
This message is about another sort of Karma activity.
Making a blood donation can save a life. This is something that I have been doing on a regular basis since 1995.
Lets Celebrate
My 75th blood donation is happening on Monday July 13th at 4:00 pm.I donate platelets once every two weeks at the Gottigen street location in Halifax. The procedure takes about 2 to 2.5 hours.
The folks at Canadian Blood Services sent me a very nice letter earlier this week and asked me if I would like to celebrate my 75th donation by inviting my friends to come and give blood with me. I thought this was a wonderful idea. I immediately called Natasha at the Blood Services office and we chatted for while about the possibilities.
Who needs your blood
Approximately every minute of every day, someone in Canada needs blood. In fact, according to a recent poll, 52 per cent of Canadians say they, or a family member, have needed blood or blood products for surgery or for medical treatment.
The good news is that one blood donation – in just one hour – can save up to three lives.
Where is your blood used
- Cancer Treatment – up to 8 units a week
- Coronary Bypass – 1 to 5 units
- Auto accident / gunshot wounds – up to 50 units
- Liver transplant – up to 100 units
- Other organ transplants – up to 10 units
- Brian surgery – 4 to 10 units
- Fractured hip / joint replacement – 2 to 5 units
one unit = one donation
High Impact Day
It turns out that Monday July 13th is a high impact day. It will be exactly 56 days since Victoria Day. The clinic was closed for the holiday and no one was in to give blood that day. Normally the people that donate on that day would book their next appointment for 56 days in the future and that would have been July 13. They were closed and of course no one booked a time to donate on Monday July 13th. That means that they are very short on donors for that day and there are lots of time slots available on that day for people to come and donate blood.
One of the things that I learned during my many donations is that Canada is self sufficient for whole blood, almost self sufficient for plasma donations and they are always in need of platelet donations.
Platelet donations have a very short shelf life. An individual donation is good for about 5 days and then it has to be thrown out. Usually when I arrive to do my donation, I find out that the donation is going to the IWK, QEII or somewhere else that day. There is a person that has been waiting for my particular type of platelets. It makes me feel good to realize that I am doing something that will help someone else.
How you can help
I am inviting all of my friends and the members of Sunrise Yoga Studio to call 1-888-2-DONATE and book a time between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm on Monday July 13th to come into the Gottigen street donation clinc in Halifax and donate some whole blood. I will be there from 4:00 until about 6:30 donating my Platelets. Drop by and say hello on your way in or say good bye on your way out.
- You can donate whole blood which takes about 15 minutes
- You can do a plasma donation in about 25 minutes
- You can donate platelets if you have 2 hours to spare.
PS: Did I mention that they feed you while you are there! You can get: Coffee, Tea, Hot Chocolate, Milk, Chocolate Milk and Juice. As well they have all kinds of cookies and energy bars to pick from. And then even have ice cream sundaes available from time to time. You can add your own toppings to the sundaes.
Such a deal
