As we celebrate “holiday miracles” during the festive season, Canadian Blood Services thanks blood donors for helping hospital patients coast-to-coast by taking the time to share the miracle they literally have running through their veins.

This holiday season, we invite you to ask your readers if they believe in holiday miracles. Have they ever experienced something so special that it made them believe in the generosity of strangers? What have they done that may have been seen as a miracle to someone else? What could they do to be someone’s holiday miracle?

Ten-year-old blood recipient Grace Hart has Diamond-Blackfan anemia and requires blood every 21 days. Miracles, like the one Grace receives each time she has a transfusion, are important to many recipients.

Canadian Blood Services has written an open letter to Grace and all other recipients based on the famous letter “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” published in 1897 in the New York Sun newspaper. It is our way of telling patients like Grace that miracles do still exist. We invite you to share our response with your readers.

Yes, Grace, there are still holiday miracles. They exist whenever you see the anonymous generosity of one stranger to another. They exist when that generosity extends to saving a stranger’s life.

Don’t believe me? This holiday season, have your Mom take you on a quick visit to your local blood donor clinic. Lined up in chairs you will see people happily and generously donating. Do they know the person they are helping? They do not.

So why do they do it? Because they believe. They believe that what they are doing is right. That what they are doing will directly help or even save the life of a neighbour, a family member, a friend … even a stranger.

There is your holiday miracle, Grace. It exists in the hearts of people who, without monetary reward, without having to look into the eyes of those in need, without knowing the person they are helping , feel the urge to help anyway. It lives in those people who take one hour from their day at this very special time of year to ensure that, in the most personal and direct way possible, a patient somewhere will enjoy another holiday too.

No holiday miracles! Why, a miracle is literally flowing through our veins.

Sincerely,

Your friends at Canadian Blood Services.

Sincerely,

Amy Erickson, Partnership Specialist
Canadian Blood Services, BC and Yukon Region