Spooktacular Night talk

this is the text of a talk I was supposed to have given last night but circumstances made it not happen. I'd like to share it with you.

Hi My name is Chris Olin and part of what this evening is about Blood Donor awareness so…

·      Hands up how many folks here think that the blood you donate is used almost entirely for trauma patients, Road accidents etc.?

·      Hands up who thinks that most of it is used for surgical patients?

·      Hands up who thinks Obstetrics, Othorpedics and other medical uses takes most of the blood?

·      !!!!!

·      The biggest single use of blood from the Red Cross is cancer patients! Yep people like me take 34% of the blood and blood products.

·      Next is 19% for other causes of anemia

·      18% for Surgical, 13% for other medical patients, 10% for Orthopedics, 4 % for Obstetrics

·      And last but still important 2% of donated blood products goes to trauma patients!

Okay but what are people like me, using all that blood for?

7 years ago I had a blood cancer and was offered a Stem Cell Treatment also called a bone marrow transplant. My immune system was compromised as a result.

Hands up who thinks your immune system is in your Liver?

Hands up who thinks it in your Spleen?

Hands up who thinks your immune system is that hot new feature you got with your HI LUX turbo diesel?

For those that sat on your hands just now you are right! Its none of those.

Your immune system is a collection of blood cells wizzing around your body created from your bone marrow. So when something goes wrong with your immune cells you need to replace the missing cells with donated cells.

I’m a white wine drinker but from time to time I need red…… blood cells. I’ve also had platelets  in the past. Now, every month, I get Intragam also called Imun-Oh-glob-lin-G or IgG.  Tonite only I’m calling it Immune to gob-lins! 

This, from what I can gather, is the antibodies in a donated blood product that has been distilled down into a clear liquid that helps me fight infections.

It takes a large number of donations to get the little bits that make up the Immune To Gob-lins I need.

So if you have given blood at any time,  I thank you from the bottom of my heart for my continued great health.

If you haven’t given yet, think about this,  1 in 3 people,

 look around you! 1 in 3 will need a blood product at some point in their life. But only 1 in 30 people currently donate blood. So why not make a pledge tonight to roll your sleeves up and give.

To finish … I, like Dracula,  look forward to someday getting a little blood from all of you.

more later

Chris