Canadian Blood Services has begun a national blood drive to build up stocks for the summer months. With people away or busy with other activities during the holiday season, donations traditionally drop off, and that can leave the country鈥檚 hospitals dangerously short of supply.
If you are able to donate, please go to blood.ca, download the Giveblood app or call 1-888-236-6283. This is an essential gift to give, and yet while one in two Canadians are eligible to donate blood, only one in 60 do so.
But there is an additional, and far more valuable, gift you might be able to provide 鈥� stem cells.
These cells, which act as a repair device, play a major role in the treatment of some cancers, but finding a match 鈥� and it must be precise 鈥� is a huge task.
For some patients, there might be only one donor in the country who has the right genetic makeup. For that reason, an international registry is maintained, with 29 million donors kept on record.
If you can donate stem cells, the odds are very high that you have saved a life. You won鈥檛 know where the lucky recipient lives. He might be in sa国际传媒, she might be in Cambodia. But this is literally a life-and-death matter.
Blood Services is particularly interested in recruiting male stem-cell donors between 17 and 35, ideally from as many ethnic backgrounds as possible. If you can help, the quickest way to register is with Onematch at blood.ca.
