Give Blood to the Murphy 400 Fund

Blood drive spurts past goal, need for donors still critical
Residents call Murphy heart of the city

By Shannon Savage
Citizen Staff Writer

As his 40th birthday approaches Elk Grove Planning Commissioner Tim Murphy isn’t looking for just the normal cake and ice cream celebration.

Murphy instead decided to give something back to the community by starting the Murphy 400 Fund blood drive.

“BloodSource is an organization that we’ve been close to for the last couple of years,” Murphy said. “So I decided that I would try (a blood drive) to raise the awareness for blood donation.”

Last year when his wife asked him what he wanted to do for his fortieth birthday Murphy remembered an idea one of his friends had.

“Ten years ago one of my good friends from college turned 30 and he threw a big party but instead of people bringing presents he wanted donations to be given to the Sacramento Food Bank,” Murphy said. “I thought that was a nice way to recognize a milestone in your life.”

The idea for a blood drive was not just created out of thin air though.

When Murphy’s sons Declan, 10, and Jack, 8, were born they were diagnosed with Neonatal Alloimmune Thrombocytopenia. This condition is when the baby’s blood platelets contain a toxin that the mother’s antibodies react to negatively, in essence destroying the baby’s platelets, Murphy said.

The blood platelets, which are about a one in 1,000 occurrence, Murphy’s boys received were from an anonymous donor through BloodSource.

For years Murphy wondered how he could repay such a gift.

He finally came up with an idea.

Murphy decided to set a goal to collect 400 pints of blood before his May 2007 birthday.

“It was challenging to get but (a goal) that I thought that I could do,” Murphy said. “When I sent out an initial e-mail saying this is what I wanted to do I got a really tremendous response.”

Two months before his birthday deadline, Murphy has actually overshot his goal of 400 pints of blood donated to BloodSource in just nine months.

“I didn’t just reach 400 I completely shattered through that wall,” Murphy said.

Students at Hiram W. Johnson High School in Sacramento stepped up to the plate and donated over 80 pints of blood recently.

“Thanks to the students and faculty at Hiram Johnson that donated I am now at 471 pints,” Murphy said.

Many residents of Elk Grove came out to help the cause throughout the months leading up to Murphy’s May deadline as well.

“I’ve been a blood donor before,” said Elk Grove City Council Member Pat Hume. “It’s just a way for someone to save a life. It’s a fast and easy way to make a difference.”

Hume, who donated three pints of blood to the Murphy 400 Fund, was thrilled when he heard about Murphy exceeding his goal.

“I think that’s fantastic,” Hume said. “He not only met his goal but he met it so far in advance of the target date of his birthday.”

Other Elk Grove blood donors were also overjoyed at the news.

“It’s great,” said John Wallace, owner of Local Centers in Elk Grove. “Obviously it was a real milestone for us to help Tim reach his goal. I think he would have reached it by May but we got it in February.”

Wallace in partnership with BloodSource threw a community blood drive party in December to help get Murphy to his goal.
“We provided the space (and) T-shirts,” Wallace said. “I thought it would be a really nice event.”

The event raised 100 pints of blood.

“It was just really gratifying,” said Wallace, who donated twice to the fund.

As for Murphy, Wallace said he was a good guy.

“I think he does a lot for Elk Grove,” Wallace said. “This is a big event for Tim and his family. It couldn’t have been a better guy.”

Other residents agreed with Wallace’s comments.

“I think it’s a noble cause and (Murphy) should be commended by the entire community for doing what he’s doing,” said Leo Fassler, Elk Grove resident who is planning to donate a third time to the fund.

Although the goal has been reached, Murphy said there was no way he would stop the blood drive.

“I’m hopeful that people will continue to donate based on the activities that I’ve been doing,” Murphy said. “I’ve told friends, ‘hey just because I’m going to get to 400,’ I was confident of that, ‘doesn’t mean I’m going to let folks off the hook.’ So I’m going to twist their arms and encourage them to go donate every eight weeks.”

Receiving repeat donations is the main goal of any group like BloodSource. If the anonymous donor who helped Murphy’s sons hadn’t donated more then once, BloodSource may have never found a match.

“For me I’m giving back,” Murphy said. “Somebody saved the lives of my kids and I’ll never know who this one donor is. The best way I can say thank you is trying to return the favor for somebody else.”


Post a Comment