AVON LAKE — Back in 1965, Al Whitney donated his first pint of blood. Since then, he’s become something of a legend among donors in Lorain County, helping to organize countless blood drives and donating more than 600 units of blood platelets.

Now, at age 71, the Avon Lake resident isn’t slowing down a bit. Whitney leaves today on a trip to Charlotte, N.C., where he plans to give platelets to the Community Blood Center of the Carolinas.

It will be the 13th state in which Whitney has donated — and in the next two years, he plans to have given blood platelets in all 50 states.
Whitney said he donates his blood cells every other week.

Normally, it takes 10 people donating pints of blood to extract one unit of platelets. But someone donating only platelets can donate an entire quarter-cup unit in one sitting.

The process takes about 90 minutes and is a little different from giving whole blood. The donor sits strapped to a machine that takes blood from his body, strips it of the platelets — tiny cells that help blood clot — returns the liquid part of the blood and repeats.

The process, amazingly, is relatively easy on the body. Whitney said the body can replenish lost platelets within 24 hours, but it takes about eight weeks to replace a pint of whole liquid blood.

He said it’s the bravery of young cancer victims that keeps him going back to LifeShare Community Blood Services, 105 Cleveland St., Elyria.

“You see the kids, you see the parents, and that’s enough,” he said. “You see a child with all kinds of needles sticking out of all different parts of their bodies, and you realize it’s not such a big deal to put just one in your arm for a little while.”

After giving his very first time, Whitney decided to organize his own blood drive with the Lorain County Blood Bank, which is now LifeShare. He helped collect six liters of blood that day, and returned again and again to lead drives until 2000.

The last year before he retired as a volunteer, he said he helped collect 2,069 units of blood platelets.

He stepped down from his leadership role but never stopped donating his own blood.

Then he got an idea.

“I was lying in the bed donating one day (last year) when again I said I can do more. I came up with the idea of donating platelets in every state,” he said.

Last August, Whitney traveled to Pennsylvania to give blood platelets there. He’s calling his tour “Platelets Across America” to draw attention to his cause, and after his donation tomorrow in North Carolina, he plans to hit Tennessee, Texas and Oklahoma in the coming months.

Donors are only allowed to give 24 times a year, so his plan will take about two years to finish. “When I’m done here in the U.S., I’ll probably go through Canada or start all over again,” he said.

Everywhere he goes, Whitney leaves a calling card.

Blood collection agencies in each state give him a T-shirt, which Whitney turns over to North Ridgeville quilter Sue Noll. She knits a quilt with the blood-donor T-shirt logo and Whitney sends it to a cancer facility.

So far, he’s given quilts to the University of Kentucky Cancer Center and the Ireland Cancer Center, he said.

“What I’m doing makes me feel good, because I know I’m making a difference,” he said. “If the person reading this would take the time to call the blood bank and make an appointment, that would make everything I’m doing worthwhile.”

To set up an appointment to give blood, call LifeShare at (866) 644-5433.

Contact Jason Hawk at 329-7148 or jhawk@chroniclet.com.

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