Steve and Lynn Jefferson reached a milestone Wednesday that few of even the most devoted couples can celebrate when they respectively gave their 100th and 50th donations at the Canadian Blood Services clinic.
Reaching those totals took years of faithful dedication - the kind married people are familiar with - so there was applause all around when the announcement was made.
It took 35 years for Steve to reach the century mark. He began giving in 1979 when he moved to Prince George and after learning his blood is 0 negative, which means it can be used by anyone.
"It's a pretty neat gift so I thought I'd share that," he said.
A person can give every 56 days, or up to six times a year, so 100 donations can be reached in as little as 17 years.
But for Steve, work commitments meant he was often out of town and when he first started giving, he had to go to the Civic Centre where the process would take much longer than it does now and was offered on fewer occasions.
Once the current clinic opened up, Steve said it has usually taken no more than an hour and giving every 56 days just became a habit.
"It's a milestone, it's cool," he said when asked how it feels to reach the mark. "You never dream of it when you're first starting out."
He's now looking forward to reaching 200 donations.
Lynn had much the same reaction upon giving her 50th donation. She said she had the added motivation of a father who has an autoimmune deficiency and needs regular blood infusions, sometimes once a week.
"Even though we started doing this before that actually happened, my dad was one of my ways of getting good karma going for him," she said.
There is plenty more room at the clinic for others interested in joining the cause.
Canadian Blood Services territory manager Amy Erickson said the service's nationwide inventory is at the lowest it's been in five years and the Prince George clinic is hovering around 93 per cent of its goal, in contrast to past years when it's cruised along at the 100 per cent level.
"Over the last year and a half we've noticed we've been struggling to fill appointments so we need to get more new donors in," Erickson said.
The clinic has roughly 200 appointments open for the rest of this month.
"We definitely have the space for people," Erickson said.
The clinic is open Wednesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each week, and every fourth Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The next Saturday clinic is on Aug. 17.
Appointments can be booked by calling 1-888-2-DONATE (1-888-236-6283) or by visiting www.blood.ca.
