- Blood for Blood - Giving blood has always played a large part in my household. My dad and sister are the universal donors and give as often as they can. My uncle gives. My grandfather gives. I did not want to live my entire life on the outside looking in, so I decided to...
- My Reason - Megan Jernigen lilmoo_102@yahoo.com This story is not about me so to speak, this story is about my best friend whose life was changed by donations from the Oklahoma Blood Institute. I will tell you a little about our friendship, we grew up together in a pre-school through eighth grade school....
- The Great Oklahoma Blood Institute - My name is Jamie Thompson I am a senior at Tuttle High School. I am one of the younger kids in my class so when the blood drive came to my school I had to wait longer to be able to donate. I was eager to start donating so that...
- Connecting with my Community: How Blood Donations Changed My Life - As I stood in my high school’s gym back in 2011 during an annual blood drive, I reflected on what I was hoping to do there. I never imagined that donating blood would become something routine in my life and something of great and lasting importance. It was my first...
- Why Aren’t They All Willing? - A few months ago, it was a typical day in my high school cafeteria. Nothing seemed out of the usual. Then I was approached by one of ABI representatives, and asked if I would like to donate blood. All of my friends sitting at the lunch table replied with the...
- Beating the Odds - April 3rd of 2000 started out as a normal day for my family and loved ones, it was also a very special day, and a day we’d soon find out that we’d never be able to forget. This day was my uncle’s 5th birthday, I had no ideal that he’d...
- We Need You to Survive - Let me take you on a journey. One that ends with the story of the miracle that saved my life. My journey with severe iron deficiency started as a child, but it was well hidden. The symptoms masked themselves as so many other disorders. For years I had gone from...
- Two Pints of Life - This past winter, I visited my family for Christmas. I knew it would be the last time I would see my cousin Michael before he left home, for the first time, to do a semester-long internship with the Disney Company in Orlando, Florida. I made sure to spend lots of...
- Father’s Day - It was Father’s Day. My mother, my friend Danielle and I went to go visit my dad for Father’s Day. My parents got divorced when I was a child so we had to drive an hour to go see him in Carnegie, Oklahoma. I tried calling him before we showed...
- My Discomfort is Worth It - Trying to sit still (rather unsuccessfully). Trying to stop my teeth from chattering (an even more unsuccessful attempt). Trying to not focus on the blood rushing out of my arm and then rushing back in (my most successful effort of the process). I am undergoing a double red donation for...
- Why I Gave Blood by Garrett Clark - Many people have different reasons to give blood. Maybe because of a love one or because its just what they want to do. I do because I feel like it’s something I need to do. When I look at he news I see people across the world needing help and...
- How Blood Donations Changed My Life - Blood Donations changed my life by giving me a goal to focus and strive towards my entire high school career. When it came to High School I never really put forth much effort in the way of extra curricular activities. I focused on making good grades and staying out of...
- How a blood transfusion saved my life - How a blood transfusion saved my life By: Haley Mueller My name is Haley Mueller and I wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for my blood transfusion. I have overcome several procedures when I was a young child that has given me the gift of being a blood donor....
- My Papa - My Papa In Oklahoma, heritage runs deep, deeper than most states. In order for those stories and ideas to continue is for those older family members must survive and be around to teach the younger generations. I am an extremely fortunate young lady...
- The Impacts of Donating - Rachel Holasek University of Oklahoma 4-8-16 Hello my name is Rachel Holasek and I would like to tell how my life has been impacted by giving blood. It all starts with my first donation where I donated at my high school during a local blood drive. I was ecstatic to...
- First Time Donating - My first time I donated blood to Arkansas blood institute was actually for extra credit for my microbiology class. My teacher wanted our class to do something better for society as a whole and gave each person an extra percent for every time we donated blood. So for the first...
- My Story of How I Became An Active Blood Donor - My Story Of How I Became An Active Blood Donor By Jonnelle Fullbright There are people out there every day that need blood for various reasons. According to the American Red Cross every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood. That more than 41,000 blood donations are needed...
- Donating B- Blood - The first time I ever gave blood was when the Oklahoma Blood Institute came to my high school and my mother made me do the “right thing” and give blood. After that I have given blood at every opportunity I can find since I am a B negative and my...
- Happiness: the key is not to help yourself- but to help others - Eight years ago if you would have asked me if I would donate blood, like my mother does, my answer would have been something along the lines of “Eww no” and “Sounds painful”. Today, if you asked me to donate blood for a stranger who needed it, I would say...
- Saving my friends life - Hello my name is Felisha Deffenbaugh. I got to Sulphur High School. When I first started to give blood I honestly didn’t know where it was going. Well this past year I donated blood and found out it went to my friends mom. As for her blood cell were not...
- First time. -
- How has blood donation chaged your life? - Giving blood has changed my life by allowing me to feel that I am making a difference in the world. I found out after my first donation that I was O negative and since then I’ve never stopped giving. I give out of the love that I feel in my...
- A Fear of Needles is Not an Excuse - A Fear of Needles is Not an Excuse I have been afraid of needles my entire life, especially needles used for taking blood. When I was eleven, I passed out in the hallway after having my finger pricked. Just pricked! There were times in my life when the mere...
- How does a four year old influence a teenager? - In November of 2011, during my eighth grade year of middle school, I acquired appendicitis. After days of endless pain and agony, I went to the emergency room only to be told to seek surgical attention. While I was being prepped for surgery, I received an IV from a young...
- It’s in My Blood - I’ve been inspired to give blood since the age of ten when I saw Jude give blood on the TV show 6teen. This was one of my favorite animated sitcoms about the many “firsts” in the lives of sixteen year olds that I used to watch. When I first heard that I...
- Find the gift in you - Kayle Phillips Find the Gift in You Oklahoma Blood Institute Essay Contest Kayle Phillips 4-6-2016 Find the Gift in You Everyone has a lifesaving gift. Whether they choose to give that gift is up to them. Donating blood is a decision that can affect up to...
- “How donating blood changed my life” - I am a sixteen year old, junior in high school. I attend Leflore high School, and also Kiamichi Technology Center. I have donated blood twice. The first time I gave blood I was terrified. I had no clue what was going to happen. People told me there was a chance...
- The First Time and The Last Time - The first time I ever gave blood was when I was a freshman in high school, it was the scariest thing I had ever done. I decided to donate blood because I knew that I would be saving someone’s life, whether it was a grown adult to a young child...
- How donating blood has changed my life. - At one point in my life I thought about pursuing a career in nursing. When I thought about becoming a nurse I was around sixteen years old. Once I turned sixteen I began donating blood at the blood drives held at my school. I also would encourage my friends, family,...
- I Know What It Means - The moment I hopped into my mother’s small white Toyota Camry, I could feel that something wasn’t right. The air in the car was heavy with tension and frosted with something deeper than a casual pick up from a friend’s house on a Sunday morning. I looked at my mother...
- Time With the Ones You Love - The days leading up to a major holiday like Thanksgiving are always busy in my household. During this time of year the days start to get shorter, but it seems the list of things that need to get done gets longer. Soon the Christmas season will begin and the...
- For the Children - I believe that blood is one of the most precious gifts that any person can give. Just by giving fifteen minutes of my time and getting over a fear of needles, I have been able to help many people and even have saved lives. Life is such a gift from...
- More Than Just ‘Blood’ - Giving blood, to some people, is just a reason to get out of class, or to get complimentary drinks and food. But donating blood is more than that. You are saving someone’s life. Maybe you are saving someone who is very close to you that just happens to need your...
- How Blood Donation Changed My Life - How has Blood Donation Changed Your Life? How has blood donation changed my life? Well, in many ways actually. When I donated blood the first time, a sense of self-respect and joy swept over me and I couldn’t believe how happy it made me. I wondered after that first time...
- Blood Donations - A blood donation could be one of the greatest gifts a person could have, because sometimes it gives them another shot at a long life. I can personally say a blood donation has helped me in my lifetime. At six months old I had to have a surgery, which included...
- “Tears of Blood - I am Lokelani Miller and I am adopted. I grew up in a family where you didn’t know when you were going to eat, or when the lights were going to be turned back on. I didn’t even know about donating blood until I was adopted. My adopted sister...
- Giving Life…. - It was a dark, dreary, drizzly day in January. I was 8 years old. My world was crashing down around me. My mom had cancer. I buried my face in my older sister’s embrace and tried to pretend this wasn’t happening, but it was. In January of 2006, my mother...
- How Donating Blood Changed My Life - Giving blood was something I was too scared to do for a very long time. My mom is a scheduled donor who gives every few months and always told me how important it was to donate and how many lives are saved because of it. I have a fear of...
- How To Save A Life - I grew up always wanting to help people, whether it was as simple as helping them carry their groceries or more complicated like possibly save their lives if I was ever in a position to. Growing up I always believed that to save someone’s life you had to be a...
- Life Changing - In February of 2015, I was sixteen years of age and a junior in high school. It started of as a normal day at school until I seen a poster on the wall that I didn’t realize would change my life forever. That poster was on one of the walls...
- “The gift of life” - Oklahoma Blood Institute Scholarship Essay Nancy Kaylan Needham My name is Nancy Kaylan Needham, and I am a fourth-generation senior at Healdton High School. I am the daughter of Billy Needham and Robin McElroy Needham and the granddaughter of Terry and the late Michael McElroy. My family’s life has often...
- Blood donations made my mission possible. - When I was fifteen, I was feeling sick and after several trips to the doctor and misdiagnoses, I went to the emergency room and subsequently diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia on June 24, 2013. This is when I was introduced to the importance of blood donation. Upon my admittance...
- A Second Chance Thanks to Blood Donation - As human beings, we make the mistake of thinking we’ll have more time to be with the people we love. We live in the mindset that tragedies only strike ‘other’ people; people less fortunate than us. We go about our lives occasionally giving these less fortunate people a thought of...
- how blood donation save my life - What does donating blood mean to me. This is my story on how donating blood has impacted my life. Blood donations goes all the way back when I was born three months early weighing 2 lbs. 10 oz. I don’t know how many times I had to be given blood...
- Blood is Thicker Than Water - It was November 17th, 2014. I had never donated before, and, to be honest, I was scared. I heard rumor after rumor of people passing out while giving blood and how large the needles were. It definitely did not seem fun. For some reason though, I decided to sign the...
- How Donating Blood Changed My Life - Though I have not donated blood directly due to my age and weight, others donating blood has drastically affected my life. About three years ago, my friend was diagnosed with leukemia. The journey she was about to go through seemed almost impossible. We had seen all the movies, we’ve read...
- Donating is worth it! - Thousands of people around the world have to depend on a donation of blood just for the fact that tragic happens and people need a transfer of blood. I have been around blood all my life. I’m not just saying that because I mean our bodies happens to be the...
- The Bottle with the Yellow Lid - When I was in the sixth grade, I was pulled out of school one day because my mom was at the hospital. I didn’t have medical knowledge beyond what I had learned from crime TV shows, but I remember her having to have something done;...
- Tragedy and Triumph - Blood Donation Essay Kristi Freeman We often think of blood donation as being a gift to an individual, often a stranger such as a random trauma or surgery patient. What most people don’t realize is that it isn’t a static gift, it can affect more than one person in a...
- Donating Blood - How has blood donation changed my life, some people may ask. Well to be completely honest it was the most surreal thing I have ever taken part of. This was my first time ever to donate blood, I was super scared at first. Not because of needles or that they...
- Giving Blood Experience - This wonderful experience of mine began Freshman year. I had Mrs. Parrish as my Biology teacher. The spectacular older women taught us many important ways of animals and how some have similar actions as humans. In class we talked about DNA and how the strands came together. At this time...
- How Donating Blood Has Changed My Life. - How Donating Blood Has Changed My Life. When I began donating, I worried about the long term effects that donating might cause, and the thought of perpetual appointments was a daunting one to say the least. My mother, who earned a seven-gallon whole blood pin, also cautioned me against the...
- My Heros - Approximately five years ago, my dad started to bruise on his right side by his ribs. We didn’t know what he did, just thought he fell and hurt him self. About a week later the bruising started to spread down his side. My mom was very concerned about it, so...
- Life Saving Liquid - My name is Ty Kiser, I am a 20 year old college student at Murray State University in Tishomingo Ok. I am obtaining my associate degree in Agricultural Leadership. I have tried to add pictures to this story but i have no idea how. However if there are any questions...
- How a blood transfusion saved my life - How has blood donation changed my life. A blood donation changed my life when I was 7 years old. I was diagnosed with Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). ITP is a rare condition with fewer than 200,000 cases per a year. It is a disorder that causes excessive bruising...
- Loving Brother - LOVING BROTHER ABSTRACT The story of how my brothers birth was saved by a blood transfusion, and how, in the long term, saved mine. Ford, Christopher R A one of a kind child born without embryotic fluid, thought never to survive with a mother who had advisory for an abortion....
- How Donating Blood Changed My Life - So the poster asked this “ In 500-2,000 words share your inspiring story on how blood donation has changed your life”, well I don’t take ‘that way’. What I mean is that the blood has a bigger effect on the person receiving the blood then the person who is giving...
- Where Would we Be – Jazmine Branch - If it weren’t for blood donation, I don’t know where I’d be right now. I know that I certainly wouldn’t be writing this paper and I know that I wouldn’t be going home to a full house tonight. Without generous blood donors, and gracious nurses and doctors, I wouldn’t have...
- Mrs. Jonita’s Experience with her Blood Tranfusion – Alex Countryman - This is Mrs. Jonita’s story, not mine. I never had a blood donation. She told me that she had a blood transfusion. She told me the story at church. So now I’m going to tell the story to you. I’m not old enough to do blood donations. I’m only 15...
- Giving Blood Makes an Impact - Blood donations are extremely essential for this country and all over the world. Giving one pint of whole blood saves three lives. I know it makes me feel great when I give blood knowing that I am potentially saving lives. People do not always realize the initial impact of...
- My Life Changing Decision - My life changed significantly in February 2016 when I gave blood for the very first time. When I first thought about giving blood my mind thought of every excuse to not do it, for example, is this going to hurt and what if the nurse can not find my vein....
- Blood Given - For as long as I can remember, I had heard of people giving blood and how it could help save people’s lives. I thought that the blood was mainly used for people who were in large accidents and had a lot of blood loss or went through major surgeries. I...
- How Blood Donation Changed My Life - How Blood Donation Changed My Life By Olivia Roberts 03/21/2016 The year 2008 my family experienced a tragedy. My Aunt Kasey was 12 weeks pregnant with her first child. We were all very excited for her as she just found out from the doctor that day that she was 12...
- How Two Blood Transfusions Changed My Life - In mid-October of 2015, my parents and others were starting to notice that I looked a bit yellow or jaundice in more medical terms. They thought either I was wearing bad make-up or I was tired, so no one thought anything of it. Then I stated to lose weight,...
- The Plan to Save Our Coach - Andrew DeWitt The Plan to Save Our Coach It was my junior year of basketball. Our coach, Paul Meuser, had been in and out of the hospital all year and had even missed a few games because of his health. That’s when we knew something was serious. After many...
- Conquering Fear, Becoming Hero - I have saved three lives by donating blood. The funny thing is, I am afraid of needles. I was born that way. We can make sacrifices to better someone’s life by one action. Giving blood and sacrifices are big things and even overcoming your fears can save a life. Unfortunately,...
- Health is Wealth - “It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” -Mahatma Gandhi This quote, from the well-known Mahatma Gandhi, is what I realized the day that I donated my blood to help another in need. Many people take their own good health for granted, but...
- How Blood Donation/Transfusion Has Changed My Life - Although many people, especially my age, do not understand the importance of blood donation or transfusions, I have always understood and related to the impact it makes on our communities and lives without people even noticing. You see, I come from a family of first responders (my grandma was an...
- For a beautiful friend with a beastly struggle… - Kendall Case Mount St. Mary Academy Class of 2016 Little Rock, Arkansas How has blood donation changed my life? A little over a year ago I lost a classmate to a disease known as “HLH”. It is a rare and life-threatening immunodeficiency that requires frequent blood donations and transfusions. Mary...
- For someone else’s tomorrow - It all started my Junior year of High School. It was the first time I would be donating and to be honest I was pretty excited about it! It was early February when the Oklahoma Blood Institute showed up, and I couldn’t wait. In earlier years even before High School I wanted...
- My Blood Story - Me at 10. In the summer of 2008, I was ten years old. For most of the year, I had been severely struggling with really bad cases of strep throat. No matter what medication I took, nothing helped. I could not get rid of it. It was terrible. I could...
- Heroes on Earth - All lives matter in all varieties of sizes, colors, gender, and etc. Some people don’t value life like they really need to because there are people on this Earth that dreams to be in their shoes. Living, breathing, and seeing your family is a blessing. Most people in this world...
- The Crash - dain The Crash This story begins with me having a good week at school and now it is the weekend and I get to hang out with my friends and work on cars. I can’t think of a better way to spend the weekend. I wake up on Saturday morning...
- Blood Donation - Danielle Nickell How has blood donation changed your life? I am currently a member of the Leadership Class 2015-2016 at MacArthur High School, which is a group comprised of our high school’s most elite seniors. One day the ladies from the Oklahoma Blood Institute came to our school with an...
- The day my life changed - The day was Feb. 4th 2011. The place was Bossier City Louisiana. The night before there had been a winter storm pass through and with it came about 4 inches of snow. I woke up and was excited to see the snow so I had the bright idea to take...
