5 life-changing gift ideas
Tis the season for giving, but what to buy? If you’re struggling for ideas, Lifeblood has a few that are guaranteed to score you a spot on Santa’s good list. We’ll even wrap it for free!
1. Give blood and help a little boy fight cancer
Did you know, every year, around a third of all donated red blood cells and nearly two thirds of all platelets go towards cancer treatment? A cancer diagnosis can be devastating for anyone, but it’s truly heartbreaking when the person receiving the news is a child.
Your blood donation could go towards treating children with cancer, like little River, who was diagnosed with T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia at just two and a half years old. Thankfully, River’s cancer was treatable and with the help of countless donors he is now in remission.
Learn more about River’s story and how you can help kids living with cancer.
2. Give blood and help find rare blood types
We all know the main blood types like A, B and O, but blood groups can be a lot more complicated than just a few letters. Some recipients’ blood types are so rare that it’s found in just 1 in every 10,000 people, so finding a match can be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
If you’ve never donated before, your blood donation could be the one a recipient is waiting for. Right now, recipients like Amira who live with a rare blood type, often have to look abroad to find a matching donor. Luckily for Amira, doctors were able to secure 8 units of blood from the UK and France to ensure her lifesaving surgery could go ahead.
Learn more about Amira’s story and how you can help find rare blood types.
3. Give blood and protect a little girl from disease
There’s a lot more to blood than red blood cells. Our blood is actually made of three key components, including red blood cells, platelets and plasma. Over the past few years, the demand for plasma has steadily grown, especially in the treatment of immune conditions.
When you give blood or plasma, your donation could go to kids like Ebony. It wasn’t that long ago that Ebony was frequently being rushed to hospital with severe infections. She lives with a rare immune deficiency called hyper-IG syndrome, but with a special treatment derived from plasma donations she can live a normal life, going months with out feeling sick.
4. Give blood and give a father a second chance
Every day, blood donations play a life-saving role in the treatment of people who have experienced severe trauma. During surgery or in an emergency, blood loss can be fatal. Thankfully our medical professionals always have a well-stocked supply of blood on hand to provide transfusions when needed.
As a blood donor, your donation could be sent to hospitals all over the country to provide transfusions for recipients like Jacob. In 2009, Jacob was involved in a head on collision with a truck. During his surgery he lost 36 litres of blood – 5 times more than the volume of blood in his body. The only reason Jacob survived was the countless emergency transfusions he received.
Learn more about Jacob’s story and how blood donations can help in an emergency.
5. Give blood and give a family life-saving support
Did you know 1 in 3 people will need blood in their lifetime? For most families, this means at least one family member will require blood products at some point, but for others the need for blood can affect everyone. That was the case for the Stannard family. What began as complications during pregnancy set off a series of events that led to the Stannard family collectively receiving over 100 transfusions.
When you give blood, your donation could go to a recipient like Miriam Stannard who required 32 units of blood during surgery, her son Spencer who required blood transfusions during his stay in the neonatal intensive care unit or her youngest Griffin, who received, 40 blood transfusions, over 15 transfusions of platelets and plasma, as well as multiple iron transfusions.
Lear more about the Stannard family’s story and how blood donations can help babies and mothers.
At Lifeblood we see every blood donation as a gift – a gift of life. That’s why when you make a donation in December you’ll be wrapped up with a limited edition bandage designed by Australian artist Madeline Stammer. So what are you waiting for?
Book a donation today and give the gift of life – it’s just what our recipients are looking for.
To book a donation visit Lifeblood.com.au or call 13 14 95
You may also like
