Give the gift of life

Dear editor:
I would like to take this time to make the citizens of Rainy River District aware of the blood donor clinic being held in Fort Frances today (April 27) and tomorrow (April 28).
I want to stress the importance of donating blood.
Fortunately, technology has brought us safer lives and more efficient medical treatments. Ironically, however, because operations like open heart surgery, as well as many other medical procedures, are now performed with few or no blood transfusions, we often think that the need for blood has decreased.
Not so! Having spent many months of 2004 in cancer treatment, I was made fully aware of the importance and need for blood and blood products for cancer treatment alone.
During 2004, I met numerous cancer patients in Winnipeg who needed multiple blood or platelet transfusions each week, over the course of many months, in order to continue their treatment or assist in their recovery.
The final phase of my cancer treatment was a bone marrow transplant. During this treatment, a patient often needs at least three units of platelets and three units of blood before they are even released from the hospital—and then often look at months of maintenance transfusions of platelets or blood, or both.
With more than 40 bone marrow transplants a year in Winnipeg, that adds up to a lot of units of blood.
Fortunately for me, I only needed one transfusion of platelets after my bone marrow transplant and no follow up blood transfusions. Because someone from Rainy River District had so kindly taken the time to donate blood, I had the comfort of knowing the blood or blood product was ready in the blood bank if I needed it.
Although my treatment was an exception, with not needing multiple transfusions, the need for blood on the cancer treatment ward and clinic in Winnipeg, and here in our own hospitals in the district, is always there.
The bone marrow transplant ward is a special hospital ward with 15 beds always filled with a patient receiving a bone marrow transplant or for extensive treatment for lymphoma, leukemia, or multiple myeloma.
This cancer treatment ward uses more blood products each month for its 15 patients than the rest of the entire Health Sciences Centre combined, including surgery and the emergency room.
Often averaging more than 150 blood transfusions and platelet transfusions a month on this special ward, you can see the demand for blood is incredible.
The neighbouring CancerClinic uses about 200 units of blood or blood product each month. Add those two figures together and that is 350 units per month—roughly what the Canadian Blood Services collects here at each blood donor clinic, twice a year.
It is the other towns in Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba that make up the need for blood for the rest of the year.
I urge you to get out and donate. Not sure how to help a friend or family member who has been diagnosed with cancer or another illness? Donate blood!
It will make you feel very satisfied knowing it may help your friend or family member down the road.
Donating blood is easy, safe, and only takes about an hour. District residents were excellent in setting a record number of donations in September, 2004, but let’s all get out and see if we can beat that number.
Remember, what we all donate here in Fort Frances is less than what is needed for one month in Winnipeg and the rest of Northwestern Ontario.
You may never meet the person that your blood was used to treat, but rest assured that person was very grateful for the “gift of life.” Donating blood is a very simple act, but one that is very much appreciated.
Please take some time today or tomorrow and go to the blood donor clinic at Fort Frances High School. Let’s all get together and set a new donation record in Rainy River District.
And to those who donate, thank you.
Sincerely,
Melanie Mathieson
Fort Frances, Ont.