Do you want to help other people? Do you want to make a difference in the world and ensure your life really mean something? Not just to you but also to others?

You needn’t make an enormous gesture to make an enormous impact on someone’s life. In fact, your small gesture could even save a life. It certainly helped to save mine.

Over the years, I’ve been the very grateful recipient of many blood donations. However, I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting these wonderful men and women in person.

I’d love them to know just how grateful I am so I’ve written this letter of thanks. If you’re a blood donor I guess I should have addressed the letter to you.

An open letter to my blood donor.

Dear Stranger,

Thank you for helping to save my life. I wouldn’t be writing this if it wasn’t for you.

We don’t know each other but if I met you I’d give you a hug, shake your hand, buy you a coffee, or something like that. I have you to thank that I’m here today. I don’t mean to sound melodramatic, that’s just the truth.

That day you decided to give blood was just another day for you. You made a last-minute decision to donate and squeezed the visit in between grocery shopping and an important deadline at work.

But to be honest, I don’t care how or when you did it. The point is, you DID it. You took a few minutes from your day which helped ensure a lifetime of minutes would follow for me.

Thank you for your noble generosity. You expected and received nothing in return except for an immense glow of satisfaction. I certainly hope that is what you experienced because it’s defiantly what you deserve.

I am so grateful for your kindness. You have no idea how much your generosity has meant to my family and I. You’ll never meet my Mum, Dad, Brother and Sister but they also want to send their immense thanks.

They’ve lost count of the number of times they’ve been at my bedside and witnessed your gift restore my fragile body. Again, I don’t wish to sound overly dramatic… That’s just the truth.

My husband wants to thank you too. He’s a wonderful man and I wish you could meet him. We got married a couple of years ago.

Among all the wonderful memories I have of that day and of all the reasons I had to smile, I took a moment to whisper my thanks to you, wherever you were.

I wanted to send you a photo from our wedding but I didn’t have your address – so I’m writing this instead. I really hope it reaches you.

With sincere gratitude,

Lisa Cox

A little more about blood donation

According to Red Cross blood service, one in three Australians will need blood at some stage during their lifetime – but only one in 30 currently give it. Blood Centers of the Pacific says that someone will need blood every two seconds.

However you crunch the numbers, blood donation is extremely important and only takes a short amount of time.

If you want to donate blood and help save a life, please visit www.redcross.org.au or call 13 14 95 (in Australia) to make an appointment at your nearest collection centre. So many people will be grateful to you.

Love Life,

gratitude | Lisa Cox OAM

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An Open Letter To My Blood Donors

An open letter to my blood donor.

A little more about blood donation