Upper Peninsula Regional Blood Center

How Donations Are Used

For more information on how you can make a "gift of life" donation of whole blood to the people of the U.P., please call the U.P. Regional Blood Center
906-225-4610 or Toll Free 1-800-491-GIVE (4483), ext. 4610.

We hope you'll consider donating to blood drives offered by the U.P. Regional Blood Center based at Marquette General Hospital.

Volunteer Blood Donations

Volunteer whole blood donations to the U.P Regional Blood Center directly help a variety of people from a grandmother having heart surgery, to a child with cancer, to a young parent in an auto accident. If it matters to you how your blood donation is used, please consider donating to the U.P Regional Blood Center.

Each year a member of your family, neighborhood or community receives Blood Center products from 11 U.P hospitals.

Whole blood is donated by volunteer donors and can be separated into several components (red blood cells, plasma and platelets).

Just one pint of donated blood can help save the lives of several people. Anyone who is in good health, is at least 17 years old, and weighs at least 110 pounds may donate blood every 56 days. There is no artificial substitute for whole blood.

Commercial Plasma Collections

Commercial plasma collection centers collect only one part of blood: plasma.  It's used to manufacture a prescription medicaition that benefits a small population of patients.  

Although individuals providing commercial plasma receive monetary compensation, it's important to remember that a volunteer donation of a pint of whole blood directly benefits as many as four patients living in the Upper Peninsula, who pay only for processing costs; not for the blood itself.

If it matters to you how your blood donation is used, we hope you'll consider donating to the U.P. Regional Blood Center.