[From the Ontario District's newsletter, The Trillium, issue 61-03, July - September, 2007 , Waldo Redekop, editor.]

[ED: In November, 2003, I received a note from Clare Hatt saying he was giving his 700th blood donation at the end of that month. The sad part was that on December 19 that year he was giving his last blood donation (due to age restrictions) but his daughter was going to give her first. Since then the age restrictions were lifted for Clare and he now has achieved 800 donations, an amazing record. The following is taken from Lambeth’s Your Village News, used with permission of Michael Halliday, manager.]

Lambeth man makes
800th blood donation,
urges others to donate

By John M. Milner, Your Village News

When Clare Hatt, of Lambeth, donated 500 grams of plasma on Wednesday, May 30, 2007 at the Permanent Blood Donor Clinic, located on Commissioners Road in London, it marked the 800th  time in his life that he had donated blood.

An 18-year-old Hatt first donated blood in 1950. He was traveling on Queen’s Avenue. The blood donor clinic was located in the original London Public Library.  He recalls that he was passing by and he realized “that’s gotta help somebody.”

He quickly pulled in, passed the medical, and gave his first donation.

“I got hooked on it,” Hatt says, of donating blood and he has continued to donate whenever he could, ever since.

The opportunity to make this 800th donation was “wonderful,” Hatt says. “It means you’re in good health.”

When Hatt first began donating blood, it was whole blood. In 1972, his mother developed lung cancer and since then Hatt has been donating plasma because it helps cancer and burn victims.

On June 12th, as Canada celebrates National Blood Donor Week (June 11-16), Hatt will be the recipient of a new Canadian Blood Services licence plate in a ceremony that will be attended by Hon. Donna Cansfield, Minister of Transportation. Cansfield will present Hatt with his licence plate.

The event will take place from 11 a.m.—1 p.m. on Tuesday June 12 in front of the bandshell in Victoria Park [London].

Hatt is excited about the prospect of receiving the licence plate. “That’s going to be really unique,” he notes, adding that he’s been told that he’ll be the fourth in Canada to receive the honour and the first in Ontario.

Stephanie Wilkinson, recruitment coordinator at Canadian Blood Services, says that the staff is “very excited (at this) opportunity to thank (Hatt) publicly.”

By donating blood, Hatt says that you’re helping your fellow Canadians in time of sickness and, in many cases, even saving them from death. “It’s a satisfying feeling,” Hatt says, “in knowing you’re saving people’s lives,” While one never sees the person that the blood donation is helping, he says that “we know they’re out there.”

“The need is great,” Wilkinson says. Blood is constantly in demand, she says, so that Canadian Blood Services can maintain a consistent level in their inventories, which supplies all of the hospitals in Canada. Canadian Blood Services collects about 850,000 units of blood a year but projections show that the need will increase to over a million units in just a couple of years.

Wilkinson reports that Southern Ontario collects about 20 percent of the Canadian national quota. “We do quite well here,” Wilkinson reports, noting that not only do they supply their own hospitals but they export blood to other provinces.

Not only does the need continue throughout the year, Wilkinson explains, but blood is like milk in that it can expire. Because of that, “it’s crucial that we have committed donors, like Clare,” Wilkinson says, adding that “someone like Clare, who’s basically had a lifelong commitment to the program, is priceless for us.”

“Anybody that can donate, please start,” Hatt says, “we need new donors to keep the system going, and the more the better.”

For more information on Canadian Blood Services or to find out where you can donate, visit http://www.blood.ca or call
1-888-2DONATE (1-888-236-62830).     k