You Too Can Save a Life

Travel around the country to bring the message that all of us can help save lives and improve the quality of other's lives by giving a little of ourselves. We can do the by giving our time, our money, our blood while we're alive and after our deaths.

It will be nice if this geocoin travels to medical facilities and donation centers where people are helping save lives every day.

Since entering college I've been a regular blood donor. In the mid 1980s I also started donating platlets. My platlet count has always been on the low side of normal so when they changed the minimum count a donor could have I fell below the limit. At that time I started donating plasma and "red blood cells." In all I've probably made 100 or more donations over the past 40 years, in some ways a lot but when averaged it's only 2.5 donations/year. I've made it a point to do this because I know there is a need. In reality the process is very impersonal. I give the blood or component have a snack and take off. The recipient will never know who donated it and I'll never know who received it. Still, it feels good knowing I helped fulfill a need.

Last year the need for donations became much more personal and the need more dramatic. Thirty years ago, my sister contracted Hepatitis C, ironically from a blood donation, before the disease was known to exist. After years of compromised health, she was cured of the disease after going through some newly developed treatments. Her liver is recovering but a complication from the disease destroyed her kidneys. She's now in need of a transplant. I've been matched as a donor and they are now evaluating whether my health is good enough for me to donate one of my kidneys.

I am releasing this geocoin in the hopes it will inspire people to donate blood or blood components if they are able. Perhaps some will be able and willing to donate bone marrow. Equally important is for people to sign up on donor lists so that our organs can be used for transplants after our deaths.

Be healthy and remember you too can help to save lives.