Tom Riles is on a mission for blood donors

Tom Riles is driven to make a difference after being diagnosed with a rare disease.

By Amanda Stringdberg
The Orange County Register

Heather Redd shudders at the thought of a needle prick.

But Redd couldn't resist when her 6-year-old daughter, Emily, came home from school with a note asking her parents to help save lives by donating blood. On Monday, the Ladera Ranch mom will endure the sting at an Oso Grande Elementary School blood drive.

"I am putting on a brave face for her," Redd said. "When you get a note with your child's handwriting asking you to help save lives, it's hard to say no."

The donated blood will go toward patients at Mission Hospital and CHOC at Mission, the Mission Viejo campus of Children's Hospital of Orange County.

The man behind the endeavor is Tom Riles of Ladera Ranch, who was diagnosed with a rare blood disease 4-1/2 years ago that prevents him from donating blood.

So instead, the 57-year-old year old wants to get 5,000 people to give blood at least three times this year. That would help save about 45,000 lives, the American Red Cross says.

Riles, who has been helping to organize blood donations since his diagnosis, is making phone calls to schools, churches and other organizations to sponsor blood drives.

TOO MUCH BLOOD

His rare blood disorder, polycythemia, causes his body to produce too much blood. Almost every month he has to have a pint of blood extracted. When his red blood cell counts get too high, his head aches and his face turns red. This month he watched as a nurse threw his 46th pint into the trash.

"Isn't that a shame?" Riles said. "There are so many people in need of blood, and I make too much of it."

But Riles considers his diagnosis a blessing. "I'm happy to have it," he said. "If I didn't have this challenge, I wouldn't have ever thought how I could inspire others to help."

TAKING ACTION

In January, Riles wrote a letter to the editor in The Orange County Register asking for 100 residents to commit to donating four times this year.

When he received 150 promises via e-mail – what he calls a "landslide of love"– he decided to think bigger and up the goal to 5,000.

Only 5 percent of eligible donors give blood, the American Red Cross reported. In Southern California that number is 4 percent. As much as 40 percent of the blood used in transfusions in Southern California comes from outside the state, said American Red Cross spokesman Stephen Whitburn. One donation, typically about a pint of blood, can help save three lives, he said.

"I'm lovingly going to rattle people's cages," Riles said. "The stinking numbers don't work. It's not enough."

GETTING INVOLVED

Students at Ladera Ranch's Oso Grande Elementary School, although too young to give blood, learned about the importance of donating blood through an in-class movie, then wrote letters to their parents asking them to donate. They also made valentines for sick children in hospitals.

"I hope this makes them feel better," said kindergartener Sarah Howorth, as she colored red hearts onto pink construction paper. "It would stink to be in the hospital."

Howorth hopes her parents give blood.

"It can save three lives," she said. "I wish I was bigger so I could give, too."

The drive is especially meaningful to Oso Grande PTA President Kelli Doezie.

Her son Tanner was born with sepsis, a life-threatening infection that spread throughout his body upon his birth.

The grayish-colored newborn was immediately put on a heart and lung machine and within 24 hours all the blood circulating in his body was from donors.

Doezie said she owes Tanner's life partly to the blood transfusions given to her son, who is now a healthy fifth-grader.

"It saved his life," she said. "I know what a difference it can make."