October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month — a time to raise awareness, honor survivors, support those in treatment and remember those we’ve lost. It’s a month filled with stories of courage and resilience and a reminder that the fight against cancer continues every day. While that fight can feel overwhelming, there’s one powerful way anyone can help: donating blood and platelets. Cancer patients often rely on transfusions during treatment, especially when chemotherapy affects their ability to produce healthy blood cells. Your donation can provide strength, hope and healing — and may even help save a life. Donating platelets Platelets are tiny cells in your blood that form clots and stop bleeding. For millions of Americans, they are essential to surviving and fighting cancer, chronic diseases and traumatic injuries. In fact, every 15 seconds someone in the U.S. needs platelets. Donating platelets is a bit different than donating whole blood. A typical blood donation takes about one hour, while a platelet donation takes 2-3 hours and must be done at a Blood Donation Center by appointment. During the process, blood is drawn from one arm and passed through an apheresis machine, which extracts the platelets. The remaining blood components are then returned to you through the other arm. Because platelets must be used within five days of donation, new donors are always needed. People with blood types A+, A−, B+, O+, AB+ and AB− are encouraged to donate. You can donate platelets up to 24 times per year. Tap the link in our bio to read more.