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Blood Drive: Make It Personal for Henry

The photo above is my grandson Jonathan “Henry”. Henry is in italics because it’s his middle name and that’s what we call him. He is now 15 months old.

Henry was born with a Familia problem. He carries a low platelet count. He will carry 90,000 to 95,000 platelets at any given time. Normally people will carry 150,000 to 450,000. I personally carry 250,000 while my daughters, Kristine, (Henry’s mother), Vivian and Henry’s maternal grandmother only carry 50,000 to 70,000 as did his great grandfather.

What this means is, Henry will bruise very easily and take longer to heal. He is a very active normal 15-month-old, but still, we must watch him more closely for injury because he doesn’t clot as easily as you or I. Though he will lead a normal life, as those before him, there could come a time when the need to have more platelets available to him may present itself. Platelets are one of the four components of blood. They can be harvested from blood that is donated. However, it MUST be donated in order to have them available. 

I tell you all of this because we have our next Rotary Blood Drive coming very soon and I am reaching out to you to ask that you donate so that people very important to me can have something available to them, if they should ever need it. You see, this is personal to me. What I ask you to do is look at your own family, friends and even just acquaintances and find the reasons that exist that make giving a pint of blood personal to you. You just never know when that pint you give might just save someone very close to you. So please, make it personal to you. For the person who receives it, I guarantee, it’s personal to them and you will be a blessing.

Posted by Jonathan Crooks
July 25, 2023

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