I've been donating for about 40 years. I started as my way of helping others. My mom passed away 10 years ago, from metastatic cancer. During her struggles, her blood counts dropped drastically, putting her into coma. People donating platelets and plasma brought her out of coma and help keep her alive for an additional 3 years. I started donating platelets every other week nine years ago. I'm doing now still to help others, but even more so, I do it to say thank you to those who donated to keep Mom with us those last 3 years.