Hillsborough resident Sean Moroney isn’t someone who lets weather or holidays deter him from donating platelets regularly. Mr. Moroney recently surpassed the century mark for donation visits, with a total of 106 at the New Brunswick Hospitals Affiliated Blood Center in New Brunswick.
”It is just how I was raised,” Mr. Moroney said. “My parents instilled a sense of community service in me at a very early age and I always felt that I should give back to the community.”
To celebrate his milestone, Mr. Moroney returned to the center to treat the entire staff to a Portuguese barbecue buffet lunch.
”The staff here is just so wonderful,” Mr. Moroney said. “I could donate in many places, but I choose to come to NBAH. The entire staff is outstanding. They make what some may see as a difficult thing to do (donating blood and platelets) very easy.”
Mr. Moroney, 58, has been donating blood or platelets since 1985, when he was a graduate student at Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia. He currently works as a senior research scientist for Johnson and Johnson.
Outside of work, he volunteers as an emergency medical technician, serves on the Science Committee at Raritan Valley Community College and is a competitive cyclist. He chooses to donate platelets because his donation has the potential to benefit multiple individuals in need.
Because the NBAH is located directly on the Robert Wood Johnson Academic Medical Campus, ’Mr. Moroney said he is constantly reminded about the need for blood and blood product donations.
”When you come here you see both adults and children receiving treatment for almost everything, including cancer,” Mr. Moroney said. “You are reminded every time you come here about how important it is to donate blood and platelets.”
These reminders, combined with his service as an EMT and his career as a research scientist, inspire him to spread the word about the importance of donating blood and blood products throughout the year.
”Everyone I know knows someone who has had cancer or some other disease,” says Mr. Moroney, who survived a heart attack in 2008. “I hope that I can continue to inspire others to give blood. I speak to many emergency services agencies regularly and I say to them, ‘Look, you guys don’t mind constantly placing yourselves in harm’s way to save someone’s life, so you can definitely do this (donate).’”
