500 blood and plasma donations later, this man says he did it all for his brother
CBC
Paul Shea of St. John's marked the week before Christmas by doing a different kind of giving.
He's done this kind of giving for a long time, though, and just notched his 500th donation of blood and plasma to Canadian Blood Services on Wednesday.
Shea has donated since 1980, when he did his first donation on the campus of Memorial University.
"We competed for a cup, a trophy called the red shield. We often encouraged everybody to get out and participate, and we generally won the cup each year," Shea told CBC Radio's On The Go.
"I don't like to brag about myself in any way, except I will brag about the fact that I give blood."
But while he knows he's helped a lot of people with his donations over the years, he said there's one person who is always on his mind.
Shea's brother, Peter, was diagnosed with leukemia in 1981 at just 22 years old. Peter lived with the cancer for 16 years and beat it, but died due to an illness after the treatment destroyed his immune system.
Paul remembers his brother fighting until the very end, and says being able to help people like Peter in their own treatment is a big part of his 500 donations.
"It really sucks in my life to go into a hospital and be carrying in bananas or fruit or flowers, when really they need blood in there somewhere. So I feel like I'm helping out without having to go in. So when I do go in, I have a conscience that I've helped someone in here," he said.
"[It takes] around 20 or 30 minutes … but you think about how long you'll be in the hospital visiting someone if they were sick, and you could spend that time, on either a weekly or monthly basis, giving that time in advance."
Shea hopes others can make the time to give blood, saying the welcoming staff make things easy and effortless.
"Here's how you can help someone out without any skills whatsoever," he said.
"All you have to do is breathe."
Download our free CBC News app to sign up for push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Click here to visit our landing page.
Winnipeg’s Granite Curling Club has asked a judge to decide whether the City of Winnipeg can ignore a provincial decision about residential housing slated to rise next to the club.
A Saskatoon woman says she watched her neighbour's police standoff play out in real time on social media.
One person is dead from carbon monoxide poisoning, following an incident Friday at a building in Regina.
A wind storm that caused the cancellation of all daytime ferries between Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland stranded passengers on both sides of the Salish Sea, adding challenges for travelers in an already hectic holiday travel week.
Maritime Electric has officially filed plans with the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission for the rotating power outages it says may be necessary this winter to prevent a provincewide blackout.
A Toronto hotel has organized a Christmas Eve buffet lunch for some Thorncliffe Park residents forced out of their condo units by a complex fire.
Residents in Fort Liard, N.W.T., are being advised to use filtered or bottled water and take other measures to protect themselves from high levels of disinfection byproducts called trihalomethanes in the tap water.
Alberta's election agency announced Monday it has approved a proposed referendum question on the province separating from Canada.
One person has been shot by police after allegedly stabbing two people in Toronto's northwest on Monday, police say.
Prince Edward Island's housing market is becoming more balanced, according to new data.
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government is presenting a new plan worth more than $35.5 billion to keep First Nations children connected to their communities, culture and families.
The RCMP arrested two men who allegedly used a classified ads website to recruit women to smuggle cannabis out of Canada to Nigeria via the country’s biggest airport.
One person is in a critical condition after an incident in Inukjuak, Que., which led to a shoot-out with police.