There’s Gold in Them Veins

by Author - Conal Pierse - Posted on

We recently became Partners for Life with Canadian Blood Services, trading the sweet nectar of our veins for cookies and juice.
As the winter holidays are one of the more common times for blood shortages, we felt it was important to do our part. And do it we did.
In just two short weeks, we reached our 2013 goal of donating 15 units of blood (that’s 57 gills for you imperials). We plan on giving even more next year, and encourage others to do the same.
If you’d like to know more about giving blood, contact your local blood donation agency

The Life Bus picked us up from the BioWare Edmonton Studio on a cold, December morn, and then it was off to the harvest. The weather was frigid, but spirits were high—at first from sugar, and then later, blood loss.
The Life Bus picked us up from the BioWare Edmonton Studio on a cold, December morn, and then it was off to the harvest. The weather was frigid, but spirits were high—at first from sugar, and then later, blood loss.
From this picture, it might seem like we did it all for the cookie. This is categorically false. We also did it for the juice.
From this picture, it might seem like we did it all for the cookie. This is categorically false. We also did it for the juice.

Here are some handy facts about blood:

  1. The average person has between five to seven liters of blood, which isn’t that much when you think about it.
  2. There are a good 60,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body, and if you stretched them end to end you would die.
  3. Blood can be stored for an average of 42 days, which also happens to be the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
  4. Blood is red, more or less.
  5. Someone needs blood every minute of every day, although this doesn’t account for vampires.
  6. The number one reason people give blood is to “help someone else.” The number 15 reason is “free juice.”
  7. Each blood donation potentially saves three lives. That’s a lot of life debts.
  8. There is no substitute for human blood. Not even vegetable shortening.
  9. Only a third of the population is eligible to donate blood, and of those, less than 10 per cent do. No jokes here, just truth.

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