Unless you are one of the rare CAPS members who does their marketing and client contact from beneath a rock, you are likely well aware of the health challenge facing my friend and colleague, Randall Craig. Randall is currently keeping his spirits up (200% by his own admission) as he moves through chemotherapy (which is a most unenjoyable, yet necessary therapy), intended to rid him of his recently discovered leukaemia. One request Randall made was for people to donate blood–some of the components of whole blood are extracted for use in treating leukaemia. The donation doesn’t go directly to Randall; however, it is symbolic of my (and our) support. I used to give blood frequently when I was in Ontario, but have not done so since I moved to BC over 20 years ago—not sure why I stopped, but I did.

Randall’s request seemed like a good reason to get started again. . . as did reading about Stephanie Staples’ attempt to encourage a Winnipeg cluster donation (that is not a technical term) as a show of visible support for our CAPS colleague! It used to be that you could only give whole blood every three months and it seemed to be much simpler to do so in “the old days”. Well, now I can give every two months. The process is more thorough (largely in response to the tainted blood scare when the Red Cross was running the donation show), yet still relatively easy. So a few weeks ago I became a donor once more (see photos). I headed to the Blood Donor Clinic at the Eagle Harbour Golf Club clubhouse in West Vancouver where they are going to be holding these clinics every other month. I have already signed up for the next one!

Why don’t we have a Chapter Challenge to see how many times each of us can give blood throughout the balance of the year (granted, I have a head start)? We could do average donations per member so all Chapters have the same chance to win (the prize being an accumulation of awesome kharma). It’s an easy way to do good and demonstrate that CAPS Cares. It isn’t automatic that your blood will be accepted—there are lots of seemingly obscure reasons why you can’t give blood—some related to health issues you may have, foreign countries you’ve visited or being late paying your CAPS membership (okay, perhaps not that one!). So go online to see when and were the closest clinic is, and lend a pint to someone whose life may depend on it!

David Gouthro, CSP