Is it safe to donate blood?

Absolutely! A clean, sterile needle is used only once - for you! - and then properly discarded. Learn more about donating.

How much can my donation possibly help?

You could be saving or enriching the lives of three hospital patients with your single donation. Most donations are separated into components. That means your plasma could help a burn victim in shock; your platelets, a clotting factor, might be given to a child with leukemia; and someone undergoing hip replacement surgery may receive your red blood cells.

Why not wait until someone I know needs my blood?

There isn't time to give blood and have it given directly to someone in an emergency. It is the blood already on the shelves that saves lives! Blood must be processed, tested and transported to the hospital before it is transfused. In an emergency, blood has to be already on the shelves ready to go. If everyone waited to donate, there would be no blood for trauma victims or other hospital patients needing an immediate transfusion.What happens to your blood after you donate.