Blood donor clinic van  (Photo by Paul Pedro)Blood donor clinic van (Photo by Paul Pedro)
Chatham

Donating Blood Is A Beautiful Gesture

The next chance to donate blood in honour of Bailey Cowell is this weekend.

Bailey needed 140 units of blood while she was in hospital, but unfortunately passed away 16 years ago because of a heart condition.

Blood donor clinics have been held all month as a way to give back.

Marisa Gatfield with Canadian Blood Services says donating blood is a beautiful gesture of love and support.

"Come out and give it a try. It's a beautiful gift and within five days your blood donation will be used as transfusion medicine for a patient in need. It's one of the most direct ways to help someone that's in need of blood or blood products," says Gatfield.

Gatfield says there's a screening process to give blood but it's fairly quick.

"The actual donation process, you can expect to be at clinic for at least an hour but the donation itself is anywhere between five and 15 minutes," she says. "It's awesome, what can you do in an hour and save a life?"

Gatfield says donating blood saves lives and helps the community.

"All I can say is if you never donated before, come out and give it a try. You need to be 17 years of age and older to donate," Gatfield says.

This weekend's clinic is April 22 from 9am until 12pm at the Polish Canadian Club.

For more information visit www.blood.ca.

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