John Cherwonogrodzky proudly holds up a sign signifying his 100th donation to the Canadian Blood Services.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
@MedicineHatNews
The following is a submitted article regarding the 100th blood donation of Hatter John Cherwonogrodzky:
Giving the gift of life
On Jan. 7, John Cherwonogrodzky celebrated the former Ukrainian Christmas date in a unique way. He gave his 100th blood donation for the Canadian Blood Services at a clinic at the Medicine Hat Lodge. It had been a lifelong goal, started when he was 18 and continued for five-plus decades.
Cherwonogrodzky actually started with severe haemophobia. He used to black out at the sight of blood, he even had a problem with the colour red. However, in his view, this difficulty was trivial to donating blood, and possibly saving three lives with every donation.
It took him several years and about 30 donations, but he did manage to condition himself. Donating became routine, and studying blood – either human or animal – led to immunology patents in his career.
“Donating blood 100 times may not be a big deal,” Cherwonogrodzky says. “Many have given far more than this. Indeed, the lady in front of me in the line had a 150-donation card.
“However, given that half of us will need blood at some time in our lives, and yet only four per cent of Canadians donate, there is a desperate need for more of us to step up.”
And he has a few remarkable memories.
“In 1978, I was in Toronto and there was the crash at the International Airport that killed two and injured 105. There was an immediate call for blood at the Manulife Centre and I was one of the volunteers. Then on 1986, I was doing research in Ottawa and I had an emergency call.
“A hospital doing heart surgery on a patient had run out of AB+ blood (my type, three per cent of the population) and they picked me up by taxi to give a pint.
“One seldom knows what one’s blood will be used for, but it will likely be for something important, to save a life, “If I can do this, anyone can do this,” Cherwonogrodzky says.
