By the time you finish reading this sentence, three people, somewhere across the U.S. will have needed a pint of blood to help save their lives. And as Ira Riklis knows, that means three people will have had volunteered to donate those three pints. And he also knows that just one donation can help save the lives of up to three people. But in spite of that, just one in twenty of those of us eligible to donate blood actually do so.
Why don’t more people donate? The two most common reasons cited by people who don’t give blood are: “I never thought about it” and “I don’t like needles.” Ira Riklis, who’s been making regular blood donations for many years now, hopes that by blogging about the need for blood donors, we can get people to think about donating, and get them to realize that they’ll leave feeling good about helping others. And as far as the fear of needles, he can testify from his experience that the process is fast, easy and painless!