Blood drive at York continues March 23 and 24

If you are considering the gift of life through a blood donation, Canadian Blood Services will be on campus March 23 from 11am to 5pm and on March 24 from 11am to 4pm. The clinic will take place in Central Square/East Bear Pit.

Each year, York shows our community spirit by saving lives through hosting Canadian Blood Services on campus. On average, one unit of blood helps three people, so our donations will be used to help hundreds of people in the Greater Toronto Area.

What would it take to make you give blood?

• If you knew you knew you could save a life, would you?
• If you knew only 3.5 per cent of eligible Canadians gave blood, would you give?
• If you knew that patients in our area hospitals use at least 650 to 700 units of blood each day, would you help them by donating blood?
• How about if you knew that cancer patients use an average of 8 units of blood products, each week, during their treatment?

For more information on how to become a donor, or to schedule an opportunity to donate during one of their many clinics throughout the community, visit www.bloodservices.ca  or call 1-888-2-DONATE.

OneMatch stem cell registration event at York March 23

Consider saving a life a different way by joining Canada’s unrelated stem cell registry called OneMatch. Canadian Blood Services will be on campus on March 23 from 11am to 4pm inviting people to take part in a ‘swab event’ in Central Square/East Bear Pit.

OneMatch is a program dedicated to recruiting healthy, committed volunteer donors for patients in need of a stem cell transplant. Hundreds of Canadians require a donor for a stem cell transplant every year and more than 75 per cent of them will rely on someone they don’t know to help save their life. Right now up to 1,000 Canadian patients are waiting for a stem cell transplant to treat potentially life-threatening illnesses such as leukemia.

Currently, there are just over 335, 000 potential donors registered on Canada’s network, but more are needed so that a greater percentage of patients can live. Those interested will need to fill out a health questionnaire next week and swab the inside of their cheek which will take about 10 minutes.

To join the registry, people need to …

  •  be between the ages of 17 and 35;
  •  be in good health;
  •  have valid provincial health care; and
  •  be willing to help any patient in need.

For more information on OneMatch, visit www.blood.ca.