I am a huge advocate for donating blood! One hour a day can really make a difference to so many people and I try to let as many people know when I donate blood and try to encourage them to give it a try! When I hit my 100th donation (hard to do as a woman and a mother of 4 children, grandmother of 7!) I had my son, my daughter in law, my husband and a close friend join me! I have now reached 110 donations at the age of 65! I also had the opportunity to be an organ donor and donated my kidney to a close family friend when I turned 60 years old. The recipient was a young woman(31 years old) who was in kidney failure (she was a diabetic and had complications) and had started dialysis. After my kidney donation my life did not change at all health wise. I took 8 weeks off to recover fully and now I can do everything that I did before the donation. My recipient is now completely healthy and was even able to have a pancreas donation so is now diabetic free. She is now happily married with 2 young children! Just remember, your time is valuable and you can use it to help so many other people! Give it a try!!!
