By Gordon Williams, Red Cross Volunteer

Until July of 1964, Mike Jackson of Spokane WA hadn’t contributed blood to the American Red Cross, or even thought much about it. That all changed when Mike’s father-in-law, who is the manager of the Red Cross Yakima office, invited Mike to accompany him to a local blood drive.

Mike donated blood that day, donated again 58 days later, and has kept on donating every so often since. At 83, he still shows up regularly at blood drives. After all these years as a donor, Mike has given 23 gallons of blood to the Red Cross. There is simply no telling how many lives have been saved by Mike’s bit of heroism.
Mike has never met anyone who received his blood.

Once donated, blood is processed and quickly becomes anonymous. But clearly Mike’s blood saves lives -- and will keep saving them as long as he is physically able to give his blood. There is a minimum age of 17 for first-time blood donors. But there is no maximum age. Previous stories in this blog have told of donors even older than Mike.

There is no such thing as blood that is too old. As long as you are in generally good physical shape, the Red Cross welcomes your blood, no matter how old you are. The demand for human blood is so great and so constant that donors like Mike are cherished.

To put things in context, someone in the United States gets a blood transfusion every 17 seconds, and 40 percent of that blood flows through the Red Cross. Cancer victims need frequent transfusions. So do victims of auto accidents. Victims of sickle cell disease may need as many as 100 transfusions a year.

Mike’s blood is particularly valuable because it is type O negative. That is considered the“universal” blood type -- not the most common, but a blood type that can be used by nearly everyone. There are hundreds of variants in blood types, some quite rare. Some are so rare that only a few people in the world can provide the blood they need. Sickle cell patients are mostly Black, and these patients seem to do best with blood from Black donors.

Just about anyone can benefit from Mike’s blood, which is why he keeps donating as often as he can -- sometimes as often as every 58 days. Mike’s attendance record is awesome but not perfect. “I missed a session once because I had just had heart surgery,” he says. “They made me wait six months before I could donate again.”

Donating blood is painless and usually goes without incident. In fact, Mike can recall only once in more than 150 of his blood donations where anything out of the ordinary occurred. “I remember standing up once and getting dizzy,” he says. “It didn’t last long.” Otherwise all the donations have gone smoothly.

The obvious question for Mike is why he does it -- why every two months or so he can be found at a Red Cross blood drive. After all, 23 gallons of blood is a lot of blood, taken a pint or so at a time. That's enough to fill nearly 100 quart milk bottles or nearly 250 soft drink bottles.

“I do it because there is such a great need for blood and because I know how valuable my type O negative blood is,” he says. But there is another image that plays in Mike’s mind when he donates blood. “I think about little kids having surgery when they are only a few months old,” Mike says. “They need my blood to survive. I think about that every time.”

What advice does Mike have for people who haven’t donated blood but are thinking about it? “Do it,” he says. “Unless you have a serious medical condition, become a Red Cross blood donor.”

If that strikes a chord within you, find a Red Cross blood drive near you and make an appointment at redcrossblood.org. You’ll get a quick medical check, give your blood and rest for a bit. Figure an hour for the whole procedure. It's not likely you will match Mike Jackson's 23 gallons donated, but with human lives on the line, every drop is precious.