Your gifts, their lives

 

Wai Yin Mok may never fully understand why her body stopped retaining enough healthy red blood cells. But she’s living an active life in spite of this mystery illness, powered by the blood transfusions she receives every few weeks, and the financial donors like you who help make these lifesaving connections possible.

Since 2017, Wai Yin estimates she’s received over 250 units of blood. Her blood donors could be her neighbours in Toronto or they could live across the country. They could be young people or retirees her age.

Whoever they are, they are recruited with help from your investment in Canadian Blood Services. And Wai Yin has a message of thanks for all the donors who help patients like her.

“Your donation has a huge impact on the life and quality of life of many people,” she says. “You might not know that people are thinking of you. But when I receive blood, every time I see a bag of blood, I see a person behind it. And I do say a little prayer of blessing for your family.”

Wai Yin first shared her story with Canadian Blood Services in 2021. Though she’d already been receiving transfusions for years by then, doctors were still struggling to diagnose her. And every few weeks, by the time of her scheduled transfusion, she was so weak she needed to book para-transit to get to her appointment.

Unfortunately, the mystery continues, even after analysis of Wai Yin’s bone marrow turned up two gene mutations. One is linked to a rare inherited type of hemolytic anemia, a disorder that causes red blood cells to be destroyed faster than they are made. But Wai Yin’s case appears to be different from the others discovered so far.

With no findings that point to a cure, doctors have continued to treat the symptoms. Thankfully, tweaks to that treatment, such as her regular iron infusions, have boosted her energy as well as reduced her overall need for blood. She now gets to her transfusion appointments by subway, and fills the days in between with activities such as hiking, bird-watching, outings to the ballet and opera, travel, and her newest passion: playing bridge.

“I picked up this new hobby only about four or five months ago,” she says. “I can say I’m getting addicted to it, that’s how much I like it!”

She’s combined that new passion with what she calls her biggest pleasure in retirement: helping others. At a retirement community where she volunteers every Tuesday, she’s teaching a resident with speech and hearing difficulties how to play the game, drawing on skills from her long career as an educator. She also makes time to visit friends who are housebound because of mobility challenges or dementia.

Before receiving blood herself, Wai Yin readily admits blood donation wasn’t really on her radar. But now, she generously supports Canada’s Lifeline as a financial donor. Much like your generous giving, her monthly financial donations help fuel research and innovation, as well as efforts to recruit donors of all kinds for patients who need blood, plasma, stem cells or organs and tissues.

She’s also formed a team through our Partners For Life program. It’s a fun way to bring people together to donate blood or plasma, set goals and track progress. The first year, her goal for the team was 23 blood donations — a target in honour of KIF23, the name of one of the genes where doctors discovered she has a mutation.

Thrilled to exceed that first goal, she set the next year’s target at 123, “because 1-2-3 is get set, go!” she explains. She’s also started sending annual letters to team members, thanking them for their contributions, explaining the next goal and encouraging them to help the team reach it.

“With the positive energy and the sense of well-being that I have, I want to pass this on to other people,” says Wai Yin. “I have other people’s healthy blood that makes me healthy, and I’m enjoying life, so I just want to share that joy of living with others.”

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Excellence in transfusion medicine

Every year, the work of transfusion specialists touches the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients in Canada who rely on lifesaving and life-changing transfusions.

The Elianna Saidenberg Transfusion Medicine Traineeship Award, funded by financial donors, will make it possible for a select number of Canada’s emerging medical leaders to access training in specialized transfusion medicine. 

Congratulations to Dr. Sheharyar Raza and Dr. Lianne Rotin, the 2023 recipients of the award.

Dr. Raza looks forward to all aspects of transfusion medicine and, in particular, researching ways for blood operators to function most efficiently within the broader health system. Upon receiving the award, he shared: “I feel incredibly grateful.”

Dr. Lianne Rotin is also keen to begin her traineeship and says: “I am most eager to build upon my immunohematology knowledge and skills.”

We look forward to sharing more about their impact on transfusion medicine in the years ahead.

To learn more about how you can help support this initiative, please visit give.blood.ca/Elianna.

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Donate Now

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A posthumous donation milestone made possible by a meaningful family decision

 

For years, family members of the late Tom Petrie knew that gatherings always had to be scheduled around what they called “Tom’s donor days.” As a very dedicated and proud blood donor for most of his life, Tom gave as often as possible.

Over time, his generosity was recognized with many milestone accolades and donation pins, which he humbly displayed on a scarf. Before he was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor, Tom was just shy of adding a 250th donation pin to that scarf. That is, until his family made one more donation from Tom to Canadian Blood Services after his passing in late 2023.

“Tom was always a really good person. Donating blood was his way of caring for others,” shared Tom’s brother, Dan. “Toward the end of his life, while he was in the hospital, he talked repeatedly about donating blood. He considered it one of the most worthwhile things he’d ever done. He was extremely proud of it.”

Tom is remembered for his bravery as a passionate skydiver with more than 2,000 jumps, a beloved neighbourhood mail carrier, uncle, friend, and brother. But honouring Tom’s legacy as a blood donor was something Dan and siblings, Lorraine and Steve, considered deeply important. And when Dan came into possession of Tom’s car, a lightbulb went off on how they might achieve this.

“I looked at donating his car to high schools, all kinds of things. Then I found a website that accepts cars and lists where the monetary value of the car can be donated to. I saw Canadian Blood Services on that list and we all agreed it was the perfect answer,” says Dan. “We thought this would be his final donation and something that would make him smile.”

 

Lorraine and Dan had let folks at the Mississauga donor centre know that Tom had passed away so they wouldn’t worry he had stopped donating for another reason. According to Lorraine, “even if he had two broken legs Tom would have found a way to donate.” But when the team caught wind of the financial donation that had been made through the donation of Tom’s car, they made sure the family received the recognition Tom was so close to earning already. A certificate and a 250-donation pin were sent to the family and promptly added to Tom’s scarf, something he carried with him throughout the final days of his life.

Tom’s dedication to donating was something deeply personal and meaningful to him, cemented by a grateful father once telling Tom that because of donors like him, his daughter’s life was saved. With his family’s decision to make Tom’s final donation a financial one, this contribution will be invested in fuelling initiatives to recruit even more donors into the lifesaving habit he cared so deeply about — allowing his legacy to live on.

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Unique ways to donate

Learn more about your giving options here.

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Bursary winner you supported says thanks

 

Financial donors like you have helped make an enormous difference in the lives of patients through an innovative program called Assignment Saving Lives. Through this program, post-secondary students work to recruit blood, plasma and platelet donors to Canada’s Lifeline and become eligible to win a scholarship toward their studies. To date, thanks to your support as a financial donor, this program has helped grow the next generation of both leaders and donors. And with your continued financial support, Assignment Saving Lives will be expanded this year to also include stem cell donor recruitment and scholarships will be available to students all across Canada.

“I am currently studying medicine at the University of Alberta. I am working toward my dream of becoming a physician so I can provide medical care to Albertans. I am so happy I participated in the Assignment Saving Lives Program. Not only did it provide crucial financial support for my education, but it also allowed me to give back to my community by helping to increase blood product inventory.”

Payton H., 2023 bursary winner
Alberta, Canada

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National Blood Donor Week is June 9–15, 2024

 

Every day, blood and plasma donors give a little of their time to give patients a lot of time — for family, friends, community and so much more. We are so grateful for every lifesaving donation, and everyone at Canada’s Lifeline who makes them possible, including financial donors like you.    

We’re excited to celebrate donors across Canada during National Blood Donor Week in June.  

We’ll be wrapping donors in gratitude — literally. People whose lives have been impacted by blood or plasma donors have shared special messages which will appear on limited edition versions of the arm bandages applied post-donation.

Stay tuned to blood.ca and our @canadaslifeline social media accounts for stories being shared during National Blood Donor Week. And keep an eye out for local landmarks lit up in red, as we celebrate donors and inspire others to join Canada’s Lifeline.