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 with a heart breaking disease or a person on an operating table in desperate need of a blood transfusion.
I think the first time I gave blood was the scariest because I’ve never been fond of needles especially large ones that were about to have my blood flowing through it to fill up one bag and about four test tubes. After it was all said and done, I had officially donated blood to help possibly improve a person’s life. It was about a week or so later that I received a letter from the Oklahoma Blood Institute saying that my donation was greatly appreciated as well as a card with my own donor number and blood type written on it. That letter made me so happy because even though I went and faced my fear I had saved someone.
Now it is my senior year in high school and I reached my goal of donating 6 times, but this sixth time meant something special to not only me but a member of the school I attend. Earlier this year the superintendent of the school was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer. It was sudden and had went undetected for quite some while, just before Christmas he underwent surgery to put in a feeding tube to hopefully help him eat something, then he came to do radiation and chemotherapy, and to most of his nurses surprise he did amazing he hardly got sick. Finally his cancer had shrunk and the doctors were finally able to do surgery to remove the part of his esophagus and stomach that had the cancer. But the catch was that he may need a blood transfusion or possibly more than one transfusion after the procedure because they were taking so much out. Our school organized a blood drive so students and faculty could come and donate in his name just in case he did need a blood transfusion.
When I heard about this blood drive I was ecstatic about helping someone who has contributed so much to the school and proper educating of the students. But I was soon to be disappointed because the day that the blood drive was scheduled was on a basketball game day and I knew there was no way the coach would let me give blood on a game day, so I decided to look and see if there was any way I could give blood just for him. I was lucky enough to find a blood drive the day after the ball game, therefore; I scheduled a time and did my very last donation of the year.
Even though I donated for the last time in high school I have not totally stopped donating, I am so thankful that I decided to become a donor my freshman year because if I didn’t I wouldn’t have experienced getting to give someone else some sort of hope for their future, especially when I was able to donate to someone who is close to our community.