2018 MacRumors Blood Drive

[MacRumors]

MacRumors is pleased to announce the Ninth Annual MacRumors Blood Drive, throughout the month of May 2018. Our goal is to save lives by increasing the number of life-saving blood and platelet donations. While most blood drives are specific to a geographic location, our blood drive is online and worldwide. MacRumors routinely reports on Apple's support for charity, as summarized in our Help Center. The MacRumors Blood Drive is our own community effort.

Over the past eight years, the MacRumors Blood Drives have recorded donations of 470 units of blood, platelets, and plasma, and celebrated new signups for organ donor and bone marrow registries. We've heard from many forum members whose lives were affected by blood, platelet, or bone marrow donations, including those whose lives were saved by strangers.

How to participate

1. If you are eligible, schedule a blood or platelet donation (see FAQ), in May if possible, at any donation center near you. Then post in the MacRumors 2018 Blood Drive! thread to tell us about it and to accept our thanks. We'd also like to hear from you if you register as an organ donor and/or register for the bone marrow registry (see FAQ).

2. If you aren't eligible to donate blood for reasons of age, health, height/weight, a recent donation, or because you are deferred as a donor, please encourage someone else to make a donation, and let us know. If they donate, you both belong on our Honor Roll! See our Blood donor eligibility thread for news about a change to the deferral policy for gay men in the U.K.

3. Share our message and help this cause by convincing friends and relatives to participate as well. The Honor Roll lists this year's donors. Please congratulate them for their generous acts on behalf of strangers.

Article Link: 2018 MacRumors Blood Drive

 

[Dr.MacGuyver]

Appointment scheduled for May 11th!

 

[JeffyTheQuik]

Thank you.

I never donated blood until I saw my son, as white as the background on this page, about 5 minutes from death with a ruptured spleen.

Blood donors and the doctors saved his life, and now we all (his brothers, sisters, and I) all donate blood to pay it forward.

I am so grateful to those that did that before that day, and I hope that my blood helps others.

 

[pete2106]

Donating platelets is totally worth it.

 

[TimUSCA]

Going in this week. If you are CMV-, please give at your local bank instead of going to a bloodmobile or bus. They need special bags to use this blood in babies, so if you're one of the few, make it worthwhile.

 

[2010mini]

Going in this week. If you are CMV-, please give at your local bank instead of going to a bloodmobile or bus. They need special bags to use this blood in babies, so if you're one of the few, make it worthwhile.

Good to know. I’m CMV-

 

[Rebel Heart]

This is great! Congrats and thanks to all who donate.
I'm a registered bone marrow donor but sadly I'm not allowed to donate blood.

 

[I14]

Thank you in advance for donating.

Many anonymous donors saved my life with numerous blood and platelet donations, allowing me to have a successful Bone Marrow Transplant four years ago.

We the recipients of your generosity are forever in your debt!

 

[diipii]

Well Macrumors, it seems your world-wide campaign has produced, over 8 years, little more than 1 unit per week. That's worthy of course but watch out lest excessive breast beating bring you into ridicule.

 

[yockster]

I wish I could, however, due to who I married and live with I am still banned from donating.

 

[StevieD100]

I'd love to donate but as a Leukaemia survivor (since 2009) and having had Chemo and lots of blood transfusions, I'm banned from donating.
But without those who did donate the thirty pints of blood that I needed to keep me going until my own immune system rebooted itself, I would not be alive today. So, a big thank you to everyone who donates wherever you are.

I used to donate blood when I worked at DEC. I managed 20 donations over the years.

 

[ipponrg]

Hospitals usually have a surplus of blood but are always short on platelets. It takes several blood bags to equal 1 unit of platelets.

I donated for 8 years straight 20x per year. I knew that each time I donated, those platelets were used the same day of at the UCLA medical center.

 

[FloatingBones]

The US Red Cross iOS blood donor app will track your donation if you book the appointment through the app. It also gives you direct access to their RapidPass webpage to run through the screening questions before your appointment. For first-timers, I strongly recommend getting an appointment (if available) and doing the RapidPass screening (if available in your locale) before going in to donate. I have been going to a local donation facility; I usually get out in under an hour.

I haven't booked through the app before; I'm curious what detail they give you on the donation tracking. I'll know next week.

 

[rjflyn]

The US Red Cross iOS blood donor app will track your donation if you book the appointment through the app. It also gives you direct access to their RapidPass webpage to run through the screening questions before your appointment. For first-timers, I strongly recommend getting an appointment (if available) and doing the RapidPass screening (if available in your locale) before going in to donate. I have been going to a local donation facility; I usually get out in under an hour.

I haven't booked through the app before; I'm curious what detail they give you on the donation tracking. I'll know next week.

Rapid pass tells you where your unit goes. For instance my Last until donated in a Detroit suburb ended up at the Cleveland Clinic Hospital. Oddly enough I received an email from the Red Cross re my blood being “ rare” though it’s beyond me why. I’m A+, and at that last donation they could not tell me why.

 

[rfrankl]

I donate platelets every 2 weeks up to 24 times a year. I know I am helping someone out there in need.

 

[FloatingBones]

Rapid pass tells you where your unit goes.

The Red Cross app does not work that way.
"Blood Journeys are only available for appointments made in the app. Schedule an appointment today and track your donation as it makes its way to a hospital."

RapidPass® is only used to perform the pre-donation questionnaire before your visit the donation facility. After completing the questionnaire, you are given a QR Code to show to the person doing your pre-donation procedure. That QR Code is not associated with the donation per se. it is only associated with the person preparing to go to the donation center.

 

[rjflyn]

The Red Cross app does not work that way.
"Blood Journeys are only available for appointments made in the app. Schedule an appointment today and track your donation as it makes its way to a hospital."

RapidPass® is only used to perform the pre-donation questionnaire before your visit the donation facility. After completing the questionnaire, you are given a QR Code to show to the person doing your pre-donation procedure. That QR Code is not associated with the donation per se. it is only associated with the person preparing to go to the donation center.

I should have noted when you used the app for the donation

 

[kevinp8192]

Just a quick note to say "thank you" to everyone who donates. I never donated in college or beyond, mostly because I was stupid and selfish and just thought it was for somebody else to do. And then out of nowhere two years ago, at a young age, I got a diagnosis of blood cancer (non-hodgkins lymphoma), and ended up needing 12 transfusions during the span of the treatment. MAN, what if everyone had been as selfish as I was? I wish I could go back and donate as often as possible. Do it, and thank you, thank you, thank you!

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Donation set for May 25!

 

[fischersd]

You guys should announce this in advance (there's likely lots of people - like me - that donated in April).
Here in Canada:

To be eligible to donate, your last:

• Whole blood donation must have been 56 days ago for males, 84 days for females
• Plasma donation must have been seven days ago
• Platelet donation must have been 14 days ago

I'm guessing that Red Cross likely has similar guidelines.

At least a month or two's notice (and maybe have an ical attachment on the posting, so people can put it in their calendars, so they get a reminder?)

 

[Doctor Q]

You guys should announce this in advance (there's likely lots of people - like me - that donated in April).

Congratulations on helping people in need! Tell us the date you donated (in the Blood Drive thread) and it will count for our blood drive. We know that people can't donate blood every month. And donors who routinely mark their calendar for their next eligibility date are showing their devotion to the cause.

We hold the blood drive every year in May, which you can note for next year, but you shouldn't delay a donation for that reason. Just remember to tell us about your recent donation or a donation scheduled soon. Our drive is about encouraging donors and giving them a little thank you, so it's not strictly about donations that occur in May.

 

[Doctor Q]

Does donated blood have cooties?

A study from the Netherlands concluded that men are better off receiving transfused blood from other men, because blood from women is less effective for them. Conversely, women do better with transfusions of blood from other women.

Blood from women who have been pregnant (especially with a male child) is apparently less effective than from women who have never been pregnant. This is presumably due to antibodies in the blood.

The research hasn't yet been confirmed by other studies, but it hints that blood donations are needed from both men and women, so blood banks can supply blood that best matches each recipient.

(For those who don't know the term, "cooties" is an imaginary disease that children talk about getting from touching members of the opposite sex.)

 

[Doctor Q]

One week

The MacRumors Blood Drive has recorded donations of 26 units of blood and platelets in the first week.

If you are eligible to donate blood or platelets, please schedule your appointment, make your donation, and post in the thread.

Whether or not you are eligible, please ask a relative, friend, coworker, classmate, or a complete stranger to donate blood or platelets, register as an organ donor, and join the bone marrow registry.

If you're been on the receiving end of such a donation, we'd be very glad to hear from you!

 

[Doctor Q]

Half-way

We're into the second half of the month, with 34 units of blood and platelets counted so far.

There's still time to make your donation appointments!

 

[FloatingBones]

Donated May 10. Staffer doing health interview had an Apple Watch -- but measured pulse rate by hand.

I booked my appointment with the Red Cross iOS app so I could track donation with the "My Blood Journey" feature. The blood is in storage now.