Community Blood Center Connects Donors and Patients

The Community Blood Center (CBC, communityblood.org) is furthering its mission to “connect lives; share life” by connecting patients to their blood donors anonymously. The Thank the Donor program allows patients who have received a transfusion to send a message of appreciation – with an optional photo or video – to the individual who donated the blood, platelets or plasma they received.

Patient participation is voluntary. The CBC also reviews all messages and may edit them to safeguard the privacy of both the donor and patient. Once the message has been reviewed, it’s emailed to the donor. “Blood donors are selfless individuals who donate because they know they are helping someone,” said Kristine Belanger, the CBC’s COO and vice president of operations. “We are excited to provide these messages of appreciation to the donors so they can hear first-hand from the patient they are helping. It’s powerful – just like blood donation.”