The positive power of social media!

Ashley Bonnell, an employee at Rexel Atlantic, first began donating blood several years ago as a way to honour her friend, Ryan, who lost a battle with leukemia.  

More recently, Ashley saw a post on Facebook from another friend, who had received a diagnosis of breast cancer. In the post she saw that Raj Damhar, Canadian Blood Services’ community development manager for Saint John and Western New Brunswick, had created a Partners for Life team to raise awareness and to support their mutual friend with breast cancer as they were receiving treatment. 

The idea of getting a team together to give back to Canada’s Lifeline motivated Ashley to reach out to Raj about getting Rexel Atlantic involved. In correspondence with Raj, she noted that Rexel Atlantic’s parent company, Rexel Canada, was involved in numerous community engagement efforts and wanted to get as many Rexel Atlantic staff involved as possible.  

Ashley worked tirelessly with 10 offices located across Atlantic Canada, encouraging participation in group donations. As a team, Rexel Atlantic pledged to collect 50 units of blood between August and December 2023. They outdid themselves, ending the year with 108 units of blood collected from a total of 83 donors. 

Ashley was able to present the impact of this tremendous effort to head office reps and will be working with Rexel Canada to begin nationwide support of Canada’s Lifeline in the future.  

Ashley’s inspiration started with one Facebook post, which ultimately led to the donation of 108 units of blood. It’s an important reminder of how invaluable it can be to share the efforts of your Partners for Life team online.