1.

Lynn Calhoun

Prof. Wright

Eng 1201

20 March 2022

What is the importance of blood donation

Many people will never think of donating blood because they think that other

people will do it. Which is the complete opposite. Not many people donate blood nor do

they understand the true importance of donating blood. So what is the true importance

of donating blood?

Think about how many people currently live in the U.S right now. When you start

to think about it, there are a lot of people. “About 328 million people currently live in the

U.S. Each year, approximately 6.8 million people in the U.S. donate blood”(American

Red Cross). When you look at the total population of the U.S. and how many people

actually donate blood the number of donors is small. Many people will think that

everyone else will donate blood so that they don’t have to. But in reality not even an 8th

of the U.S.’s population donates blood.

There aren’t many people that will donate their blood, but there are so many

things that you can do with blood donation. You can give your blood to cancer patients,

you can donate your platelets or your plasma, you might also have an uncommon blood

type that is needed. For example “Some blood types are quite rare and are likeliest to

be found among people with shared ancestral origins.”(American Red Cross). If you

have that rare blood type you could donate your blood. Cancer patients that are dying
and need your rare blood type to save them, because they can only take so many other

blood types. So if you were to donate your blood they could have a better chance of

getting the blood that is perfect for them and it could potentially save their life.

When you think of people needing blood you might tend to think that the people

that need it are dying or they were in a severe car crash, and could have lost their

blood. People might not realize that “blood is needed by women with complications

during pregnancy and childbirth..”(World Health Organization). Blood can be used for

many different things that could save a life. With blood it can only be stored for so long

before the blood goes bad. It is like your fruit and veggies at home. After so long of

being stored the blood goes bad just like your fruits and veggies going bad in the fridge.

“Blood is the most precious gift that anyone can give to another person – the gift of life.”

(World Health Organization). For me I donated blood at my high school last year for the

first time. After I donated my blood I got a call a few weeks later that the blood I donated

was sent to save a life at Springfield Regional Medical Center on November 15, 2021.

Now to me the feeling of knowing that I was able to save a life is just an amazing

feeling.

Just like I I said in the last paragraph “An hour of your time could give someone a

lifetime”(University of Cincinnati). You might wonder what the point would be if you

could only save one life if you chose to donate your blood. But little do you know that

when you donate your blood the blood that you had donated that day could not only

save one life but could save up to three lives. Isn’t that pretty awesome. Just think, you

could be giving up to three people a second chance of life by sitting in a chair for 10

minutes. To start your blood donation process you only have to have eaten enough
food, have a screening and a mini physical. It doesn’t take a lot to donate blood. Many

people think it takes more than just that to donate their blood.

It doesn't take a lot to donate blood, but the blood that you donate is broken

down into different types. For the United States “AB is the rarest blood type, followed by

group B. Group A and O are the most common blood types.”(Live well). Blood types

play a huge factor on if a patient can get the blood or not. If you have the rare blood

types or AB type(s) and B type(s) you should really consider donating your blood. There

is only a few rules when it comes to donating blood. You must be 18 years or older or

you can be 16-17 with parent permission. You must also weigh over 120 pounds, you

need a valid ID. You also can’t have a cold or illness at the time of your donation. There

are a few more rules that are in place to make sure that taking your blood won’t hurt you

in the process.

When it comes to donating blood people don’t understand how easy it is. This

could be the approach that is taken to try and receive more blood donors. For example

“Differences in psychological distance thus affect whether individuals focus on how easy

it is to donate blood (feasibility) or on why it is important to donate blood (desirability) in

the ad message.”(Hong and Lee). Sometimes the star used to gain donors isn’t always

the best and could be the reason we didn’t have that many blood donors. So we need to

find a better way to advertise it so it doesn’t scare as many people away. I won’t lie, I

was a little scared, myself. But once it started I was no longer scared all I did was lay

down and. Play on my phone till I was done.

 I think that blood donation is a very important thing. I encourage others to at least

donate their blood once. Because then you are at least giving one person another shot

at life. The importance of blood donation is so important not many people realize how

important it really is. I hope that this has encouraged you to donate your blood. All you

have to do is find your community blood center and sign up for an appointment.

Works Cited

“Blood Products: Blood Donation.” World Health Organization, World Health

Organization, https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/blood-

products-why-should-i-donate-blood#:~:text=Blood%20is%20the%20most

%20precious,for%20patients%20with%20specific%20conditions

Hong, Ji Mi, and Wei‐Na Lee. “The Stages‐of‐Change Approach for Prosocial

Behavior: Message Tailoring to Encourage Blood Donation.” Journal of Applied Social

Psychology, vol. 51, no. 3, 2020, pp. 219–236. Sinclair Library Database, Library,

https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12727. Accessed 6 Mar. 2022

“New Blood Donors.” University Of Cincinnati,

https://hoxworth.org/donors/blood.html.

“Why Blood Donation Is Important.” Donate Blood, Platelets or Plasma. Give Life,

Red Cross,.
 “Why Donate Blood?” UnityPoint Health,

https://www.unitypoint.org/livewell/article.aspx?id=d497dcef-68f3-47ac-8eef-

16e5f51b9f66