The Rex Hospital was founded in 1962 and was the first community blood donor center founded in the Triangle. Twice a year the Rex Hospital trucks come around to collect blood from generous students. This is much appreciated because every three seconds someone is in need of blood so people who are donating their blood are really saving lives.
“I was so scared the first time I went because I really do not like needles, but after it was over I realized it wasn’t even that bad,” said Jenn Eustace, senior.
Even though it can be scary having an arm poked with a needle, some of the donors say it is completely worth it because you are potentially saving three people’s lives. The bloodmobile comes once first quarter and again the third quarter. The Rex Bloodmobile contains five different seats for donors and this is where the students go to get their blood drawn. Every year, Athens has about 200 people who donate blood from athens. The requirements are that you have to be a minimum of sixteen years old and weigh at least 110 pounds.
“It [donating] was not as bad as I thought it was going to be, the nurses were friendly and they had tvs that we could watch and distract ourselves from what was going on” said Jess Roch, junior.
A man named James Harrison who is a 74 year old man and lives in Australia, has donated blood 1,000 times and has saved over two million babies. He has a rare kind of blood that contains an antibody in his plasma that stops babies from dying from Rhesus Disease, a severe form of anemia. Harrison has been donating blood every few weeks since he was 18, and when he turned 20 his blood was deemed so special his life was insured for one million Australian dollars. One out of every ten people to walk into a hospital need blood and this is just one, strong example of how giving blood can help save so many lives.
“The blood drive is very rewarding because you’re giving blood to people who need it so that they can survive,” said David Parker, sophomore.
Even though it seems like a scary, painful process, some people who have donated said the worst part is the finger pricking and in the end the rewards outweigh the ‘pain.’
