It started at the University of Alberta when the Red Cross launched a blood donor clinic for the students.

It ended when a chronic heart condition rendered me ineligible as a donor.

But in those 50-odd years and more than 50 donations, I was a committed blood donor.

As first I told people, I went because it cost nothing; I could lie down in the middle of the day and would be given free juice and cookies (if not doughnuts) at the end.

But the real reason I became a regular donor was far deeper and more personal: Both of my parents’ lives had been saved through the generosity of others and their freely donated blood.

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For me, it was payback for those anonymous donors. Today, the idea that healthy younger adults are not willingly donating such life-saving and impossible-to-replicate blood is astounding and........

© Calgary Herald