Tiverton Rep. Jay Edwards hits donation milestone

After his last visit to the Rhode Island Blood Center earlier this month, Rep. John “Jay” Edwards, D-Tiverton, left with more than just a Band-Aid on his arm.

He was given a plaque for having reached a milestone of donating 100 gallons of platelets.

It took many years to do it.

Only four other people in the state have done the same in the history of the 39-year-old blood center, Kara LeBlanc, marketing communications manager for the RIBC said.

“It takes a lot of dedication,” LeBlanc said of the hundreds of visits that were made to reach the milestone.

Edwards has been donating blood since 1988, and switched to platelet donation in 2005. It takes about 10 minutes for a whole blood donation, LeBlanc said, but platelet donation takes 90 minutes to 2 hours every visit.

Platelets have a shelf life of just five days, LeBlanc said. People battling cancer require them. Platelets help prevent and stop bleeding.

According to the RIBC, one donation of platelets can save three lives.

Edwards said he started donating blood in college when his then-girlfriend’s mother worked for the Red Cross.

He said he switched from whole blood donations to platelet donations when a phlebotomist told him he had a really high platelet count. “So I did it a couple of times and it just evolved,” Edwards said.

He spends the time every other Saturday – his appointments are always at 7 a.m. – chatting with the others who are regulars and goes through his e-mails.

“A lot of people look at it as down time, a couple of hours when no one is asking them to do anything,” LeBlanc said.

“There’s a good group of people,” Edwards said of the donors and phlebotomists who have become a sort of family.

He said he doesn’t really think about the people he may be helping with his donation because he never knows what happens to the platelets and who might be receiving them.

“They need not just our platelets, they need our prayers,” Edwards said of the patients he and others help with their donations. “We never know who gets them. You just hope they work.”

He’s so dedicated that a name plate is on the donation chair he always lounges in during the twice-monthly visits.

’It’s just something I do,” Edwards said. “You kind of get yourself in the habit.”

LeBlanc looks at it another way.

“He comes in, saves lives, and goes about the rest of his day,” she said.

The four others who have reached the 100-gallon of platelets donation milestone are Michael Crepeau and Jeanne Sylvestre of North Smithfield; Joe Pailthorpe of Cumberland; and Malcolm Grant of Hope Valley.

LeBlanc said about 37 percent of the nationwide population is eligible to donate blood, but only 5 percent actually do. There is no upper age limit. On average, blood donors give 1.5 times per year when they could be giving much more.

She said it would help “if everyone could do just a little bit more.”