Husband and wife duo saves lives together!

Husband and wife team Mary and Mike Schleicher both donate platelets on Friday January 11th 2008 at the Community Blood Bank. They have been happily married for 25 years. Mike is a Police Officer with Mill Creek Township and Mary works at Great lakes Home Health care and 2 or 3 times a year their schedules line up to let them both come in and give platelets together.

Donating platelets is about a 2 hour procedure that can only be done at the Community Blood Bank's fixed site in Erie. They both donated platelets 24 times in 2008, the maximum allowed by the FDA.

Mike got involved in platelets when Mary's father was being treated for Leukemia and he's been doing it ever since. Mary started a little over a year ago and was recruited once the CBB lab discovered she had a record high platelet count. Mike said "I love the staff and am treated great. I always look forward to coming here." Mary said "We are so blessed and this is a great way to give back."
"Mary's life was helped saved by blood donors 20 years ago when her spleen ruptured and she nearly bled to death." Having her spleen removed is what they attribute her extremely high platelet count to. Mary was able to 'split' 9 times last year and actually give two full units of platelets during 1 donation.

When they are not donating blood and the weather is good you can find them each on their own Harley's. For their 25 anniversary they took a month off and drove out west on the ride of a life time.