December might be one of the busiest months of the year.
It’s a lot – managing work, an increased number of family commitments, shopping, and checking your own lists twice. Plus, if you have children there’s a good chance that you are in the throes of seeking out holiday magic whenever and wherever possible.
Making a donation to Canadian Blood Services might not be a high priority, but community development manager Sharon Schaab is hoping you might reconsider.
“The last two weeks of December especially are a very difficult time for us to collect because people get really busy with activities and holidays and maybe just don’t make blood donation the priority at that point,” Schaab said. “Right now, the hospitals have what they need, but we need donors coming in every day in order to sustain that a stable supply.”
Over the next five years Canadian Blood Services predicts the need for blood will increase by about 10 percent and the need for immunoglobulins is going to increase by about 50 per cent.
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Nazir Jaffer is a regular at a donation centre in Toronto’s east end.
He chooses to donate plasma, something people can do every week. “The service which I’m doing is helping the sick people. And the sick people they depend on us,” Jaffer said. “The whole procedure it takes about one hour. So, one hour is just nothing, you know, for the sacrifice.”
This week Jaffer reached an incredible milestone – 500 donations. At the age of 67, he has built in “giving back” as part of his routine and rarely misses an appointment.
“It means everything. Nazir is such a familiar face in our clinic,” Schaab said. “He is here without fail every week and he really encourages other people and he’s built such a connection with our team and with all the other donors.”
A donation of this size is generally only possible through plasma donations. People can also choose to donate whole blood or platelets.
“By donating plasma because you can donate once a week. That means you can do fifty-two donations a year. If you’re doing whole blood, men can only donate every two months and women can donate every three months,” Schaab said.
Jaffer hopes everyone might consider a single donation to help those in need this holiday season.
“After my donation I always approach everybody before I leave. I ask them how many donations you have made. And then they tell me the number. And then I tell them this is my donation so far. They tell me you have such a big number that we can’t even reach you. I said no. Don’t worry about reaching me.”
Now Jaffer has a new goal, reaching 1000 donations and encouraging even more people along the way.
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