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He has saved hundreds of lives over many years and set a record, of sorts, with his heroism. Yet, this Utahn's donations to his community have gone unheralded until today.
Ron McGee gives a gift to the ill and injured of his community every two weeks. In fact, he's the most generous blood donor ever at MountainStar Blood Services of Ogden Regional Medical Center, and he rarely misses an appointment. "I'm proud of it. I'm pretty consistent about it," he said.
Two weeks ago, McGee reached a remarkable milestone. "He's reached his 50-gallon donation, which is about 400 donations that he's done, and has helped a lot of patients," said Marilyn Peralta, director of blood services.
"That's pretty good. I've met a couple of them that they've brought in here for an interview. It felt good that I could help them," McGee said.
McGee started giving whole blood many years ago, and then became an apheresis donor -- that's a blood donation that allows a donor to give specific blood components, such as platelets. It also takes up to two hours for an apheresis donation.
"You know, it's helped a lot of people. They said that my AB positive, when I was doing whole blood, went to babies," McGee said.
"He's committed a lot of time to help patients," Peralta said.
McGee honored the memory of his deceased brother by making the record-setting donation on his brother's birthday.
To show their appreciation, MountainStar threw him a celebration. There simply aren't many donors who made that big a gift. "There are others across the country that have, but they are very far and few between," Peralta said.
McGee and MountainStar encourage all of us to donate; only 5 percent of the population does, and 60 percent of the population can.
E-mail: jboal@ksl.com
