How to Find Out When Your Blood Donation Saved a Life

Sweden is hoping to make blood donation even more rewarding by creating a texting service so donors feel good about their volunteer efforts.

First, a donor will get a text message thanking them for donating and then another that notifies them once their blood is actually used. The Blodentralen — the blood center in Sweden behind this service — says it's thankful for the positive responses it's received on social media and local media so far.

"But above all we believe it makes our donors come back to us and donate again," said Karolina Blom Wiberg, a communications manager at the Blodentralen to The Independent. A photo of what the texts looks like is below.

The service started three years ago in Stockholm and is finally starting to roll out to other places in Sweden. In the US, we don't have quite the same service, but the Blood Donor app by the American Red Cross functions similarly. Instead of a text message, you can track "your blood's journey from donation to delivery" and see just how much of a difference you've made.