Zelia Antunes & Sarah Azzouzi
- Feb 4, 2022
- 2 min read

Why donate blood?

Updated: Feb 25, 2022

We don't teach you anything by saying that "blood is life" and giving blood is saving lives. But few knows that you can benefit from it too.

Donating blood:

- In order to help others:

Because there is no substitute for human blood, it is the most precious gift that anyone can give to another – it's the gift of life. A decision to donate 450mL of your blood can save up to 3 lives (if your blood is separated in its components – red cells, platelets and plasma)

Indeed, donating your blood helps to maintain in good health thousands of men and women, like patients who are going through heavy treatments (chemotherapy), people with immune deficiency, autoimmune diseases (including rare and orphan diseases, etc…), that get treated with blood component-based medication, such as human plasma (albumin, immunoglobulins, coagulation factors); or patients having bleeding troubles (following an accident, an operation or when a woman experience child delivery problems), in need of blood transfusion. Those patients all have a vital need for blood products in order to stay alive.

There is a constant need of blood due to the fact that it can only be stored for a limited period of time. Blood can be used up to 42 days after being collected, if it has been conserved at 4°C; platelets can be stored for 5 days with continuous shaking at 22 °C and frozen plasma at - 25 ° C has a lifespan of one year.

Each year, million of patients are treated thanks to blood donation.

Every day:

- 10,000 blood donations are needed to meet the needs

- 47% of transfused patients have cancer or a blood disease.

- 35% of transfusions are performed during surgery.

- 32% of transfusions occur during relative emergencies with 12% during life-threatening emergencies.

- For your own self:

As said previously, when you donate blood, in addition of helping people and fulfilling your duty as a citizen, you're becoming a hero: you get to be proud of yourself for acting in order to help the society.

Furthermore, by giving your blood, you're experiencing a minor blood loss, also helping your cells to get renewed and helps your body adapt faster, in case of haemorrhage.

At the transfusion center, you get to know your blood type, which is very important in case you ever get yourself transfused or in need of an operation.

Moreover, you get free blood tests for blood quality and diseases like syphilis, HIV, hepatitis (representing exclusion criteria for blood donation)

And Because when you give you receive, going to a transfusion center allows you to have your whole day off, with a buffet of snacks. In Romania, you also receive 65 lei worth of food stamps (used in certain restaurants and in supermarkets) and a stamp that give you 50% off public transportation for a month.