UNILAD/Fox News 21Over the course of 34 years, a Colorado man has donated more than 80 gallons of blood, saving 1,920 lives.
Dave Mahalick, from Pueblo, makes a 100-mile round trip every other week to give blood.
In a little over three decades, Dave has made a whopping 640 donations – a major milestone for the gentleman, who says it’s the least he can do.
Dave started giving blood 34 years ago, inspired to do his bit after one of his friends’ mums needed a blood transfusion. He says once he got in the habit of donating blood, he just ‘kept on doing it’.
Dave told Fox 21 News:
You get to be 70 or 80 years old you know, nobody wants your eyes, no one wants your heart, no one wants your kidney, but what surprises me, you can continue to give blood constantly.
Vitalant, a non-profit organisation that collects blood from volunteer donors and provides blood services across the US, awarded Dave with a commemorative pin on Friday (October 11) to mark the milestone – which many people do not reach in their lifetime.
Fox 21 NewsVitalant say they have eight donation centres in Colorado and regular blood drives for people to come along and donate.
Dave added:
If you can’t afford to make a donation to a charity, you can at least go and give blood and help people save lives with the blood you’ve given – so I think it’s a great thing to do, certainly a good thing for your community.
According to Give blood, the UK needs nearly 400 new donors a day to meet demands, as well as 135,000 new donors a year to replace those who can no longer donate.
PixabayThey also need 40,000 more black donors to meet growing demand for better-matched blood, as well as 30,000 new donors with priority blood types such as O negative every year.
The best thing about giving blood: nearly anyone can do it.
As per the criteria set out on the website, you must be fit and healthy; weigh between 7 stone 12 lbs and 25 stone, or 50kg and 160kg; be aged between 17 and 66 (or 70 if you have given blood before) or be over 70 and have already given blood in the last two years.
In the UK, unlike Dave’s extraordinarily generous bi-weekly visits, men can give blood every 12 weeks and women can give blood every 16 weeks.
Help us end blood donation discrimination and support our campaign to overturn the outdated law that prevents gay & bi men from donating blood.
To find out more about The Illegal Blood Bank, click here.
After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.