Because of my profession, and not only that, my mobile phone has unfortunately become an extension of my hand. Every day brings dozens of calls, emails, messages and notifications. Most of them are not for particularly pleasant reasons.
A few days ago, however, I received what I consider to be the most beautiful message a person can receive on their phone.
The message read:
“May love and good health always accompany you for the gift of life you gave. Your blood has been transfused. Thank you.”
For a few seconds, I just stared at it.
I was a little emotional. Not because someone said “thank you”. We do not donate blood in order to be thanked. It was the feeling that I had helped someone. The feeling that you have helped a stranger, which fills you up inside. It gives you joy, hope and, subtly, creates a desire to repeat the act.
Because now there is someone out there whom you will never meet.
You do not know their name.
You do not know their age.
You do not know whether they are a child, a mother, an elderly person, whether they have undergone major surgery, or whether they are fighting their own battle against illness.
You know only one thing.
That a small act which took just a few minutes of your time became something much greater for them.
And that is when you realise how strange, and how beautiful, this gift really is.
Blood cannot be bought. It cannot be manufactured in a laboratory. It cannot be replaced by any medicine. It exists only because a stranger chose to sit in a chair and dedicate ten minutes of their time.
We often say that “blood donation saves lives”.
We have heard it so many times that the message has almost lost its impact.
Until that SMS arrives.
Until you read that your blood is no longer sitting in a blood bank.
It is inside another human being.
And perhaps that is what we should remember every time we hear there is a need for blood. Behind every appeal, every announcement and every number, there are people waiting. People whose only request of those of us who are healthy and able is a small bottle of blood and a few minutes from our lives.
If you are reading these lines and have never donated blood, or if you did it once many years ago at school or during military service, I want to tell you just one thing.
Do not do it because public campaigns tell you to.
Do not do it because you read an appeal or an invitation to a blood donation drive in memory of someone.
Do it because one day you might receive that message too.
And then you will understand that you did not simply donate blood.
You gave a fellow human being a little more time to live.
