Rams Save Lives

Game day location: Irwin Center, San Francisco

Team: Gung-ho CCSF football players

Game plan
Work with BCP account representative
Recruit “team players”
Distribute materials on technique
Educate players on their game day positions

Warm-up session
Pizza, pasta and salad, lots of water
Fill out donor history questionnaire

On Wednesday, March 17th, Coach George Rush led his team of football players from City College San Francisco (CCSF) to the Irwin Center. The goal? To help save lives.

“I believe giving back is a privilege,” said Coach Rush, who’s in his 34th year as head coach at CCSF. “My wife and I have always donated blood, and this year we thought it would be great for the team to save lives through blood donation as well. We hope to make it a regular blood drive.”

Many like Offensive Line, Jeff Ferrier, 19, were first-time blood donors. And many like him, also knew someone who had received blood. “I knew a kid on the football team who had a blood transfusion,” said Jeff, a freshman.

Free Safety Deshon Marman, 19, also knew someone who received blood – his 25-year-old cousin. “He was involved in a car accident,” said Deshon, who will be a sophomore next year. “And he received blood transfusions which saved his life. Although he was paralyzed, through physical therapy he began to regain strength in his arms and is doing better today.”

Deshon began donating blood when he was a student at Archbishop Riordan High School, San Francisco. “They made donating blood sound cool there,” said Deshon, who wants to be a counselor or teacher in the future.

First-time blood donor and also middle line backer, Vaughn Boatner, 20, said, “The idea was scary, but it’s not bad at all. I would give blood again.”

And the winning score for the day: 18 whole blood donations, 10 double reds.

Total number of lives saved: 114 (one pint saves three lives)

Go Rams!

And thank you to all of our student blood donors and blood drive coordinators for the colleges that help us save lives here in Northern California. Happy Spring Break!

Brittany’s Story

by Brittany Hill, grateful blood recipient, chef-in-training, and cancer survivor

Without WONDERFUL blood donors, I wouldn’t be alive.

On February 4, 2005, my mom received the worst news any mother could, “The cancer is in 95 percent of her blood and your daughter has 24 hours to live.” That night I found out that I had blood cancer. It was taking over my body and on top of that I had a rare blood type, B negative, which is found in only 1.5 percent of the population. My mom contacted Blood Centers of the Pacific and coordinated blood drives. She also contacted newspapers to make them aware of my situation and how critical it is to donate blood. Since then I have received several blood transfusions.

Blood donors, thank you for giving me a second chance at life. Every chance I get, I share my story. My years at high school, I talked with each of my classes about cancer and how I lived through it. My senior year of high school, I found out my school was doing a blood drive with Blood Centers of the Pacific. I decided to tell my story to the WHOLE school via TV announcements in order to encourage donors to sign up. More than 200 people signed up to donate blood for the school blood drive that year. Connecting with someone who has received blood transfusions and knowing that your blood can go to someone like them seems to be a good motivator.

So I say you today, thank you and go donate blood!