Richard Stavros has donated blood regularly to the Red Cross for over a year. Richard was inspired to give blood though the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization that has a long-standing relationship with the Red Cross in the form of an annual blood drive. Another Knights of Columbus member, Dr. Joseph Provenzano, encouraged Richard to donate blood. At first, Richard was hesitant, remembering the times as a child when he used to run at the sight of a nurse holding a needle! However, Richard’s faith and desire to make a meaningful contribution to his community helped him override his fear, and he now donates whole blood every eight weeks.
Richard now uses the Red Cross Blood App to schedule appointments, keep track of his total donations and track the progress of each donation. As he is a registered donor, Richard can answer at home the general health questions required for each visit. Once he arrives at the donation center, he confirms the responses to the questions. This RapidPass® makes the process more time efficient for the donor. Richard also appreciates that he has a record of each “mini-physical” detailing body temperature, hemoglobin levels, pulse and blood pressure.
Knowing that each pint of blood can help more than one patient, Richard enjoys paying it forward and seeing the impactful results of his contribution. He recalls receiving an email in July 2017 informing him that his blood had been delivered to the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Richard intends to become a platelet donor, too. He also helps promote blood drives on social media to encourage former donors to return and new donors to contribute.
Download The Blood App by Texting “BLOODAPP” to 90999 or Search “Red Cross Blood” in Your App Store.
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