Donor and Patient Stories - Mike Ringer

“It's never too late to start giving blood ”

Mike Ringer had put off giving blood more times than he wanted to remember. But on February 2, 2005, he was done with the excuses. He became a blood donor.

“I’d always been leery about donating. I don’t like needles,” said Ringer, a 34-year-old from Salisbury, Md. who works as account executive for Q105. “But recently, I became friends with a mother of 4 who had been in hospitals for 13 years, suffering from kidney disease and a blood clot in her leg.” Ringer’s friend had also undergone two kidney transplants, and her latest setback is that she has contracted Cellutis, an infection of the skin and underlying tissues that can affect any area of the body. “She’s been in and out of hospitals for half of her life. Lately, going in for treatments has become difficult because she said it’s become more of a challenge for her to receive her medication through an IV tube. “It made me think that if she can go through all of that to get well, I can give blood.”

In February 2005, Ringer rolled up his sleeve in Ocean City, Md. at the annual Beach Blanket Blood Drive, to donate blood. “It was a piece of cake compared to what my friend has been through. The ‘reality of the needle’ I can compare to an Eastern Shore of Maryland mosquito bite! I finally did what my conscience was telling me to do for so long – I put aside my fears and did the right thing. It felt so rewarding. There’s never a wrong time to become a blood donor. Just do it. It can mean a world of difference to somebody else,” says Ringer.

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