May 27, 2025 • 34 mins
John Norman is a normal dude who made a blood platelet donation one day. When his colleague told him that donated platelets helped save her life, John decided to keep rolling with the donations. He donates every other week, which is now over 160 times!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Everybody's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks. We
continue now what part two of our conversation with John
Norman right after these brief messages from our general sponsors.
(00:25):
The YouTube video I've seen a five minute YouTube video.
Who made that?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Actually? The Blood Center that I go to.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
To give yous use an example of a guy that's
constantly given play.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
With Yeah, exactly, And I don't remember exactly. I had
been contacted before. I take that back years ago as
one of their campaigns. They said tell us your story
and this I'm like halfway through this journey now, and
I'm like, I've been telling.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Stories, so I'm going to tell you about me telling stories.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
And I got contacted and they did a little blurb
on me on their website that which is great, but
you have to you have to be somebody like I'm
going to go to the Blood Center website today and
look around.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Look there's John Norman did day.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
How many people are hanging around looking at the blood
side or website and wish you need blood.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Nothing against them because people do go there. But it
was nice to be featured a little bit. I got
I went out for a couple of photo shoots with
them for some of the things that didn't end up happening,
and then a couple of months ago, their media guy
called me up and said, hey, we're looking to do some.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
New emotional videos.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
The cool part it wasn't just for external they're using
it for internal uses. In the first place that they
showed that video was in they're all hands meeting with
all of their employees to remind them why they do
what they do. All those vampires got into one room
and watch the video about John Norman doing that stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So I was like, wow, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That is cool. But here's the here's the thing, here's
the reason I asked. The very last three seconds, it
comes up and it says over eight over a period
of eight years, John has donated.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
One hundred and six five now would be one hundred
and sixty five on.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Friday, one hundred and sixty five times. I've donated one
hundred and sixty five times in eight years.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
But that's and that is about five So I never.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Counted it that way, and until you asked me that
just a little bit ago. So I don't I don't
know how I would calculate those units. But one hundred
and sixty times is for me. I just counted as
ones going in, but it might be three times that
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
So, And I think of some of.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
The people that I've that I've talked about, one in particular,
who just passed away in November, she needed ninety as
just as part of her cancer treatment. One of the
other people that I shared about had leukemia also and
she needed three hundred units of blood and platelets or
blood products to finish getting through her treatments.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So it's without them, yeah, or is being able to
take treatment?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
What I guess that's the thing is do you have
you take the time to translate that eight years one
hundred and sixty five times, which is five hundred units
robbably translates to three four five hundred loves.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
That's what they tell you.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
You can save up to three lives with a blood
donation or a platelet donation.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
So yeah, I guess that's pretty good math.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
What does it make phil like?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
What? It feels great?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
And frankly, just after eight years you talk about commitment
and opportunity and passion, it's become a passion for me.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I'm committed to do it. The opportunity came once.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
At my office, right with this blood drive and then
that walk with my friend where I learned how important
it was. I'm really excited because, look, I'm here with
Bill doing a podcast that other people might hear, and
that might increase that three percent to four percent. And
if telling other people's stories in my history and convince
(04:01):
some other people to do that, then that's cool. That
feels really great. I was excited to come here just
because of that.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Tell me a few of the stories that you've highlighted
that our listeners will be like wow, wow, Not that
any of them are more important than the others. I'm
we're not trying. It's not a competition at all. But
you've got to have a couple that are near and
dear to.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Your there there are several that are near and dear
to my heart. One of the first ones that kind
of it got a little bit bigger for me was
so I told you earlier before we started.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Today, I was in the biking community and one of
you falling off your bike off and that was really impressive.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I don't know if I'd want to be part of
that community, but ahead.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
The bicycling community, it's amazing, and we did cyclic cross races,
we did mountain bike races, and especially the mountain bike races.
These are on on the weekends and it's everybody from
six year olds through seventy year olds racing these races
out in the woods.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
But it's like a.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Big family camp out and it becomes a family for you.
We take care of each other. In fact, when I
did have that crash, it was the biking family that
picked up the pieces, hooked up my camper and drove
it over to the hospital. While well, Michelle and my
kids were there with me. One of one of the
(05:29):
fathers of a kid that raced with my son contacted me.
He said, you know, we're doing a charity event for
best friend of my son, Peyton Alexander, who has discovered
that she's got ing saracoma canceled seventeen.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
At the time, I think, maybe.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's just breaks my work. You're already breaking my heart.
And I even heard the story just lining up the
words answer and seventeen years old, when you're supposed to
be embarking.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
On, you're finishing up high school, you're about to go
to college, and you're about to start your life and answer, Oh,
so we're going to do this event called peddling for Peyton, Like, well,
that sounds cool through that and unfortunately I was not
able to make the event, but it did become sort
(06:25):
of a It became sort of my first story or
several stories.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
But I did get to meet her later. I had
never met heered.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
This was the best friend of his son, and our
bike bicycling commuter community was from all over the state,
so he didn't even live near us. But Peyton didn't
only care about herself. She as a bar of her treatment,
discovered the Ronald McDonald House and the fact that they
needed blankets, just at least blankets because when people come
(06:55):
and stay there, the Ronald McDonald House will give them
blankets while they're there that they can take home with
them keep. And she said, you know what, I'm going
to do a blanket tying event down our local library.
If you can come, bring some blank go buy Walmart
and get a bunch of five dollar blankets and we'll
cut them up and tie them together and make some
(07:16):
more blankets for Ronald McDonald house. Like so, I couldn't
make your event, but I want to come meet you
and learn more about you. And I show up and
it was Peyton and a bunch of her high school
friends and her parents.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And a couple of other people, and this weird old
and this weird old dude.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Exactly who was this now fifty some year old guy
just wandering in?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Can I tie blankets with you? I know you've never
met me before?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I had, I had asked ahead of time. I was like,
this might sound weird, but because of your friend, I
want to know a little bit more about you.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
It was.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
It was a fun day. I don't tie blankets very
well either, so but it was.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
But she over over the years, ended up tying with
her friends and community members hundreds of blankets that ended
up going to Ronald McDonalds. She her cancer went into remission,
really exciting, but then it came back. She underwent a
stem cell transplant her own cells. I can't remember exactly
(08:19):
what type of stem cell treatment that is, but my
dad had it too, same thing my dad did. It's
going through his cancer, but basically that that's stem cell treatment.
They take your platelets for a while, the patient's pay platelets,
and they keep them and then they zap.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
You with a super high dose of chemotherapy.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
With the plan of killing all the cancer cells, but
because it's so high dose, it kills all your bone
marrow and everything else that needs to be in place
for you to survive. So as soon as that's done,
they put stem cells back in you with the hopes
that your bone marrow will kick in again, producing everything live.
(09:01):
And it works for some people. It worked for my
dad for a while too. Lance Armstrong did this. He's
still alive, so it's it's a treatment that sometimes works. Unfortunately,
she was in remission for a little while longer, but
came back and and and Peyton passed away a number
of years ago, But going to that was the first
funeral that I ever went to with somebody that I
(09:24):
had connected with told the story about. But I've been
talking with Kim, her mom, before coming here, and I'm like,
I hope you're okay with me mentioning your daughter's name,
because I want to honor her as part of why
I still.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Do this, and it's important for me.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I'm missing they're doing a golf not golf outing barbecue
foundering for the Peyton Alexander Foundation now that they've started,
and I'm missing it because I'm here. But I said,
this is pretty cool reason to mister barbecue. I'm going
to Memphis and I can have some barbecue there.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Well where barbecue where?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Where this is in Milwaukee, they're calling it a barbecue whatever.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
They want to if they should have a barbecue fundraiser.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Here, let's go to the fundraiser. That is heartbreak it
is And Peyton connected me through you in starcoma as
a childhood cancer. Mostly childhood cancer. It's the same cancer
my dad had. It's only maybe one percent of adults.
One of Peyton's I was connected to Katie, who is
(10:29):
another one that I've really connected with and the family.
Again virtually, I have not met Katie. She lives in
Reno and Nevada. I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But Katie
was an amazing person who was also a giver and
an advocate for cancer research. She just passed away in November.
(10:50):
But I wouldn't have known about Katie or the amazing
things that she did. And if you look her up,
I'll give you a link later.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
If you look her.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Up, you give now.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
If you look up Katie's collect on Instagram, you'll find
everything you need to know.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
You'll see, you'll see videos of that.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
She was highlighted quite a bit because of how amazing
she was and how she lived with her cancer. Her
hashtag now that was created when she died is live
life like Katie. She loved National Parks and it was
her goal to visit everyone. I think she made it
to twenty some and several of them a lot of
them after she started getting cancer because she didn't want
(11:31):
to skip out on life just because of this disease
was in her. She wanted to live life. She didn't
know when her last day was.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Could be.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
We'll be right back, so we could say, wow, give
all this blood and give all these cancer, all these playlets,
and these people are still cancer. My answer would be
(12:02):
quality of that life they get living with cancer. Good
happen out bludd. Even if they don't survive and go
into permission, their lives are still enriched and prolonged by
this gift, the simple gift of sitting on your for
twenty minutes for blood two hours or platelets and giving
(12:26):
so that you or someone you love will have what
they need.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
So here's another statistic.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
One hundred percent of us are not going to live forever,
but so if by giving blood or platelets. You can
let somebody live another day or a week, or a
month or years. It's all the same thing. I mean,
we just need to let people live. And if this
can do it, then why not.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
It's so simple, an army of normal folks candidly, I mean,
we're not We're nobody's ever going to mistake Alex for
being particular, right so or or no one's ever going
to say, well, my goodness, look, look look at the
look at the I mean, we should do a thesisis
(13:12):
on billing this army. I mean, this is just simple stuff.
It's normal people seeing here is the need filling it,
celebrating those stories and hopes of surviving, hopes of inspiring
more to do more. Right, this is so simple that
we have had on some guests with some pretty complex
(13:34):
things and that they would have to have a certain
skill set to actually go do those things. So while
we celebrate them and hopefully inspire them, there's really a
small community people that can do what some of those be.
Everybody can do this pretty much as long as you
pass it. But at least everybody could go get tested
to do it, and then two thirds of us can
(13:55):
do it, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
What also too, if you can't do it, they have
volunteered drivers to drive this blood to the hospital. There's
a volunteer that whenever I'm done, it gives me cookies
and a can of cranberry juice.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
When I'm done, you get cookies and cranberry juice.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That's enough reason to do it right now.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
You guys have Panera bread here? Yeah, Panera donates their
day old bread. Those boxes of Panera bread that I
can pick up pick from.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Really they do that.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, there's always boxes of that there and good for
bread by the way, a little plug for them.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, but sometimes that's what shapes the meal I'm going
to cook that Friday night. Well, I'm not exerting myself.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Everybody should be doue. Yeah, and you don't have to
have any skill set. You don't have to have anything.
Just have a willingness and if somebody wants to follow.
I'm not a social media person, Okay, I mean I'm
on it and all that, but I don't know. I
use the wrong words all the time. Now, excuse me,
(14:56):
crap about it. You're not really on it.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
There's you have an account, but you haven't been on
it yourself.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
See I get it.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, see, there you go. So how does somebody find
your stuff?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
So you can find on Instagram. My Instagram handle is
port Norman, so port like Port Washington Norman like my
last name JPN to my initials, so Port Norman JPN.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
And pictures and the stories and the people that you're celebrating. Wow, donate.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yep, you can read the stories and see the pictures.
I always put pictures of them because there's always a
picture of.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Me at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
So if you see me sitting in a chair, that's
a trigger that this is going to be one of
my platelet posts. And actually looking through it, there's more
of those than a lot of my other Because I'm
sixty years old now, I'm not really good at social
media either. I struggled to get it shared on Instagram
and Facebook at the same time. And Facebook, I think
if you just look up John Norman, I don't know what,
(16:01):
there's probably a ton of them, but you could probably
that Instagram is going to be more easy because I
don't On Facebook. I share more to my friends and
not public.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
On Instagram.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
I leave it public because I want if I share
about somebody and it can and it triggers somebody to say, hey,
I want to try this, or you should read this story.
I don't want them to send a link out to
somebody and have it block.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
I want to continue the story.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I get it. So when you go there, it's a
picture of you first, and it's a picture of the
person you're thinking about that day, yep. And then their
story of their fight with whatever they're afflicted with, and
why their strength inspires you to continue to do this
(16:46):
all the time, all of which, if you ball up,
is intended to inspire others. Yep.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
That's pretty much it. Sometimes it's a short story, sometimes
a little longer.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
But after the Shop Talk episode, we army member Keith Bauch,
he wrote us, and I'm telling you this because he
gives Keith thank you all respect. Your post was wrong.
You sit over there, hush Bill and Alex. Good morning
(17:18):
from tropically cold Minnesota. Clearly this came from a few
months one of my neighbors. I want to be part
of the army that moves the amount of blood donors
from three to four percent, even three to three and
a half. I've given blood in the past, but never
on a consistent basis. I'm going to do my best,
try and give once a month from now on. Your
(17:41):
guest has inspired me to do this. It was interesting
because about a week after your episode, I was listening
to another podcast about the need for blood, plasma and
platelet donations. Another reason for me to give. I have
a daughter in college that gives plasma twice a week.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Thanks for beer money.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I think that's for beer money. Yeah, it is for
every buddy. But I shared your podcast with her to
reinforce the benefits of what she is doing. Guys, keep
doing what you're doing inspiring us normal folks. Here's why
I'm calling that out just a little bit. We don't
deserve the credit for doing what we're doing inspiring normal folks.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
One time.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
It's all of the stories and all the people that
are inspiring. All we are is the conduit. I read
that to you because this gentleman has clearly been inspired
to do this very thing because of it's awesome. It's awesome.
This guy your neighbor. Do you know?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I have no idea who Keith is. Never heard that
name of it.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
He's from your neck of the woods.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
He's Minnesota. We don't talk about that. I'm a Packers fan.
He's a Vikings fan.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I'm sure you don't know might have to reach out
to this. I might lightly suggest that part of your
Instagram stories could be about guys like him to inspire
others as well. It doesn't just have to be the
people getting the play. Someone who's been inspired by your
story could maybe inspire someone else. When I read that
(19:10):
we do. We get lots of emails and correspondence. I'll
read every bit of it. I'll respond to every bit
of it. But when I read this and then I
think about how you reached out to us, and I
think about your story and the connectivity of it all
(19:33):
kind of makes the fact that Alex about a year
and a half ago made me start doing this dumb
thing all worth it. So respectfully, I don't feel like
we're inspiring anybody to be one normal folk one at
a time.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Well, I think you should give yourself a little more
credit though, too. I stumbled on your podcast and what
are you doing? This is different than me. You're sharing
other people's stories. It inspired me to reach out to
you because I think the army of normal folks idea
is it's so easy, like you said, and you do
what you can do for one person. One of the
books that I meant to bring I work at Harley Davidson.
(20:12):
This is so This is a Bike, a book that
kind of reached out to me literally from a Minnesota
used bookstores I was walking through and it's called Nice Bike,
Nice Bike, and it's it's a collection of stories that
the author put together, Mark Sharon Brock, I think is
his name, and I want I want to read.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I wrote this down because I had to. I had
to go look it up again.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
But what he.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Focuses on and his his theory is that the three
things that you need to do to make people's lives
better is to acknowledge them, honor them, and to connect
with them. And by acknowledging, honoring, and connecting with people,
you can change the world, one person at a time.
That's always been in the back of my head too
(20:58):
ever since reading that book, also at the beginning of
the whole thing, and I think, I think that goes
a long way. It's simple acknowledge, honor, and connect and
that's that's what we do. That's what you're doing. You're
you're honoring people for the cool stuff that they do,
even if it's.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Normal, it is cool. And it's also only three rather
than twelve, so it's a lot easier to remember than that.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Scouting still had to write it down, though, didn't they
for sixty give yourself a break.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Memory, I don't know. So there you have it, folks.
It's so easy to be an army of normal folks.
And Alex some months ago made the really good point
that I've kind of tagged on and I continue to say,
which is you can serve without even leaving the house.
(21:50):
There's typically people down the hallway that needs service. You
can serve without starting some massive organization. You can go
sit for two hours every two weeks with the new
in your arm and save three lives. You have taken
it to a whole other level by honoring and acknowledging
the stories of these people that you hope will inspire
(22:14):
others to give. And it's worked because Keith from Minnesota
send us an email saying the very same thing, Keith,
I hope you are listening and we'll reach out to
John and y'all connect. You're too close to one another
not to because apparently that's the third activity I spike
(22:36):
is to connect.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yep, yep, for sure, And I would I would love
to get messages from people.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
If you want to learn more, I'm happy to talk.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
I got to share too, that I've hit one hundred
and sixty donations. There are some people that there are
people there every other week when I go that are
the same people. Oh and Chris and a few other
people that I've met, and they're kind of my platelet buddies.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Every other week.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
There's not the same people because you know, you go
on a trip and all of a sudden, you're every
two weeks is off. But I know there's a person
I've connected with in Sweden who is he's at two hundred.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
There's a guy at Versity.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
The blood center that I go to that is close
to five hundred donations. That's he started donating platelets when
in like nineteen eighty or something like that. Now he's
eighty three years old and he's still going in every
other week to donate platelets.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
But see, as beautiful as those people are, that story
is a little bit of the problem that you see
the same people over and over again. Oh this is
there need to be enough people giving that you don't
know all of the people giving. So hopefully we can look.
If this conversation moves the needle just a little bit,
it's more life saved. And you are a beautiful example
(24:07):
of what we are trying to inspire people to do,
which is just give where you can. And you've turned
it into a passion and a story and everything else,
and that's awesome. But it's so easy give when you can.
And by the way, I think the Red Cross receives
almost forty percent of the blood given.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Possible.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Not very hard to find the Red Cross, Nope, not
very hard to find a blood center. If somebody wants
to reach out to you and connect, let's best way
to get in touch with John.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
You can DM me through Instagram or if you want
to just use a regular old email.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
It's easy too.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
So my email addresses John John at Portnorman's dot com.
Port like Port Washington Norman like my name, with an
s atdn dot com.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
One thing that John and I talked about in advance
of the interview too is listeners can reach out and
share story ideas for him too. So people who are
going through cancer, habit cancer, people who have been beneficiaries
of blood products.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
It could be great for Army members to share that
is a really good point. You have somebody dealing with
this right now, and you want to do one of
the three steps and honor them, do another one of
the three steps with and connect with John, and then
John will do one of the three steps and maybe
(25:31):
share their story.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Or hey, if you feel like doing just doing the
same thing I'm doing. Sitting there in your chair. You
got one arm free, you grab your phone and tell
your story or tell someone else.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
And then you can somehow connect you to it. Absolutely,
you can share it.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Absolutely. Yeah, and shread this around a little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
One more thing before you wrap up your routine beforehand
is pretty funny.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
So it has become a habit. And now it's also
a routine. It's always a Friday morning at six o'clock.
I've tried going in in the afternoons before, but as
it turns out, I'm a coffee addict, and I will
drink coffee all day. And you know, there's a problem
if you drink coffee all day and then you go
and sit in a chair and are expected to be
still for two hours, it doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I'm overhydrated and I'm gonna need to pee well up
and it probably does jump.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
A catheter.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
They would offer one, I'm sure, but I'm not interested
in going there at One of the things that our
blood center used to do is it's similar to platelets.
It's called granulocyites, and it's these are not universal. There's
very specific to a person in the types of proteins
that they have in their blood. And I was asked, actually,
twin brother thing. They called me up and they said,
(26:48):
your brother sent us your way because we need somebody
with exactly your blood type in this protein combination to
donate granular sites for a cancer patient that is in
the hospital waiting for your granular.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Sites literally literally.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
So it's one time where you knew exactly what you're
doing and exactly where it's going.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yeah, I mean, and they were, they were they were
calling because this particular therapy that this is like a
last ditch effort when they get to the point where
they need granular sites like this. And they were lining
up not just me, but five or six other people
to donate every day for a five or six day period.
(27:29):
And for that one they literally told me, I don't
care if you have to beat you can, We'll get
you depends or something. But you're going to stay here
until we got everything that we need to get out
of you. And with with with platelet donations. If they
have trouble getting the needle in and it doesn't work,
then you just try again another day with the granular sites.
They're like, we'll keep sticking the needle in there until
(27:51):
we find the right spot. This arm doesn't work, we'll
use the other arm. If that doesn't work, well, pray
a leg or something.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
And there's a person literally right there that if you
don't give they die.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Good chance of that, yep, because they they they line
you up and the striper're able to find out.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
No, they for privacy.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
But do you wonder I would love to meet a
recipient someday I have actually been not mine, I mean,
I've met all these other connections.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Sure, so it's it's pretty durrank.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Close to your morning routine, John, I'm.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Sorry they eat so my morning routine now on Friday morning,
I get up at four point thirty.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I hit the snooze maybe once or twice.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
I grab a shower, then I the blood center is
about a half an hour drive from my house.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I stop at McDonald's.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I always get a sausage McMuffin with egg and a
hash brown and a small coffee.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So clearly you don't have to eat healthy food to
give platelets.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Well, they do tell you to eat, but they don't
stay healthy.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
And I'm figuring, you know, if I'm going to save
three lives today, I can have a sausage McMuffin.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
I actually love it.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
It's like five.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
The first thing they do when you get when you
get there, those they take your blood pressure and I'm like,
I often blame the hash brown because it's pretty salty
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Maybe it's a health check basically every two weeks and
if I.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Can pass, and I'm like, yeah, so that's it.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Then I go in and I mark the box it
says I've done this before.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
And your twin brother doesn't confuse them, no.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And they so it is a health check. They'll do.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
There's a questionnaire that you have to fill out so
that they can tell you whether you're eligible or and
it's fifty questions every time, and it's and you so
you notice this when you did your blood donation, right,
It's everything.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
It's what John's getting at. As they ask your sexual history.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
They questions, have you ever been paid to have sex?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Have you had sexual contact with I mean, it's probably
fifteen questions just about.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I think there's but it's I think there's time Lisa
would pay me not to have sex. If you want
to know the true that's an.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Add on question depending on how you answer the first one.
But it's because they want your your blood product to
be healthy for the recipient. Of course, it also gets tested,
so I figure I'll be the first to know if
I end up.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
If you had up for something, you'll be the first
to know.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, anything else you want to coverage, John, Not that
I can think of.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
The only the only thing that I was reviewing some
of my notes this morning.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
That and I think I may.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Have mentioned this to you Alex later on after our
pre interview, was that my dad passed away from cancer
in two thousand and four, of youing Saracoma. My mother
in law died also. They both died at the age
sixty three. My mother in law died of cervical cancer.
And I didn't start this donation have it until twenty seventeen,
(30:52):
so was that thirteen player. I didn't start telling the
stories till after that, And I think that for me,
the reason I have this Beyond Grief book here too
is because it's a double whami sometimes. And I got
introduced to the grief community through the same habit by
meeting these two people, and.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
It has allowed me to process.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Some of the grief of me losing Dad, and it's
allowed me to dig in a little bit deeper to
what he went through with the answer and what I
got out of being his son for sixty three years.
Sixty three years, I'm sixty nine, say I was born,
you know, just for being his son. And as I
(31:39):
was reading through my notes of I did an Instagram
take over for a week where I shared about my dad.
This was in twenty twenty twenty, and that was so
cathartic for me. Part of it was about the cancer,
but part of it, part of it was about him
living life like Katie. He was the first example of
live life like Katie. Katie was a reminder for me.
(32:01):
They revisited this and got into these stories.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
So it's interesting the storytelling process that all this is
actually healing for survivors very much.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
So it's healing for me.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
I like you've said so many times in your guests too.
I get ten times as much out of this as
anything I'm giving. I mean, I'm donating my platelets, but
this is it's healing for me to tell somebody else's
story and to learn more about my dad, just because.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
It's a beautiful side benefits of the whole gig.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, it could be. You two, go give it a try.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
That's it, John, Thanks for taking the time to come
down here and share your story. Thanks for what you're doing,
Thanks for bringing me, thanks for being an inspiration. And
I really hope, against hope that people listening to us
today will say, Okay, this is an easy one.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I'm gonna go, hope, So and let me know if
you do.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, I want to let John know. He'll tell your story.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Yeah, there's a pyramid that gets.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
An email us and let us know, because who knows
who might read your name one time and Alex may
call you up and bother you. You never know. Thanks
for being here, buddy, Thank you appreciate it, and thank
you for joining us this week. If John Norman has
inspired you in general, or better yet, to take action
(33:33):
by donating blood, platelets or something else entirely, please let
me know because I am really interested in seeing if
our country can move the needle beyond three pitiful percent.
I'd love to hear about it. If you donate blood,
or patments, plasmo or any of it, let me know
(33:57):
we got to do better. You could write me anytime
at bill at normalfolks dot us, and I promise I
will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, share with friends
and on social subscribe to the podcast, rate it and
review it. Join the army at normalfolks dot us. Consider
becoming a premium member There any and all of these
(34:19):
things that will help us grow an army of normal folks.
I'm Billboard. Until next time, do what you can
Everybody's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks. We
continue now what part two of our conversation with John
Norman right after these brief messages from our general sponsors.
(00:25):
The YouTube video I've seen a five minute YouTube video.
Who made that?
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Actually? The Blood Center that I go to.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
To give yous use an example of a guy that's
constantly given play.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
With Yeah, exactly, And I don't remember exactly. I had
been contacted before. I take that back years ago as
one of their campaigns. They said tell us your story
and this I'm like halfway through this journey now, and
I'm like, I've been telling.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Stories, so I'm going to tell you about me telling stories.
Speaker 3 (00:53):
And I got contacted and they did a little blurb
on me on their website that which is great, but
you have to you have to be somebody like I'm
going to go to the Blood Center website today and
look around.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Look there's John Norman did day.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
How many people are hanging around looking at the blood
side or website and wish you need blood.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Nothing against them because people do go there. But it
was nice to be featured a little bit. I got
I went out for a couple of photo shoots with
them for some of the things that didn't end up happening,
and then a couple of months ago, their media guy
called me up and said, hey, we're looking to do some.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
New emotional videos.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
The cool part it wasn't just for external they're using
it for internal uses. In the first place that they
showed that video was in they're all hands meeting with
all of their employees to remind them why they do
what they do. All those vampires got into one room
and watch the video about John Norman doing that stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
So I was like, wow, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
That is cool. But here's the here's the thing, here's
the reason I asked. The very last three seconds, it
comes up and it says over eight over a period
of eight years, John has donated.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
One hundred and six five now would be one hundred
and sixty five on.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Friday, one hundred and sixty five times. I've donated one
hundred and sixty five times in eight years.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
But that's and that is about five So I never.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Counted it that way, and until you asked me that
just a little bit ago. So I don't I don't
know how I would calculate those units. But one hundred
and sixty times is for me. I just counted as
ones going in, but it might be three times that
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
So, And I think of some of.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
The people that I've that I've talked about, one in particular,
who just passed away in November, she needed ninety as
just as part of her cancer treatment. One of the
other people that I shared about had leukemia also and
she needed three hundred units of blood and platelets or
blood products to finish getting through her treatments.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
So it's without them, yeah, or is being able to
take treatment?
Speaker 1 (02:56):
What I guess that's the thing is do you have
you take the time to translate that eight years one
hundred and sixty five times, which is five hundred units
robbably translates to three four five hundred loves.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
That's what they tell you.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
You can save up to three lives with a blood
donation or a platelet donation.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
So yeah, I guess that's pretty good math.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
What does it make phil like?
Speaker 2 (03:23):
What? It feels great?
Speaker 3 (03:24):
And frankly, just after eight years you talk about commitment
and opportunity and passion, it's become a passion for me.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
I'm committed to do it. The opportunity came once.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
At my office, right with this blood drive and then
that walk with my friend where I learned how important
it was. I'm really excited because, look, I'm here with
Bill doing a podcast that other people might hear, and
that might increase that three percent to four percent. And
if telling other people's stories in my history and convince
(04:01):
some other people to do that, then that's cool. That
feels really great. I was excited to come here just
because of that.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Tell me a few of the stories that you've highlighted
that our listeners will be like wow, wow, Not that
any of them are more important than the others. I'm
we're not trying. It's not a competition at all. But
you've got to have a couple that are near and
dear to.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Your there there are several that are near and dear
to my heart. One of the first ones that kind
of it got a little bit bigger for me was
so I told you earlier before we started.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Today, I was in the biking community and one of
you falling off your bike off and that was really impressive.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
I don't know if I'd want to be part of
that community, but ahead.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
The bicycling community, it's amazing, and we did cyclic cross races,
we did mountain bike races, and especially the mountain bike races.
These are on on the weekends and it's everybody from
six year olds through seventy year olds racing these races
out in the woods.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
But it's like a.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Big family camp out and it becomes a family for you.
We take care of each other. In fact, when I
did have that crash, it was the biking family that
picked up the pieces, hooked up my camper and drove
it over to the hospital. While well, Michelle and my
kids were there with me. One of one of the
(05:29):
fathers of a kid that raced with my son contacted me.
He said, you know, we're doing a charity event for
best friend of my son, Peyton Alexander, who has discovered
that she's got ing saracoma canceled seventeen.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
At the time, I think, maybe.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's just breaks my work. You're already breaking my heart.
And I even heard the story just lining up the
words answer and seventeen years old, when you're supposed to
be embarking.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
On, you're finishing up high school, you're about to go
to college, and you're about to start your life and answer, Oh,
so we're going to do this event called peddling for Peyton, Like, well,
that sounds cool through that and unfortunately I was not
able to make the event, but it did become sort
(06:25):
of a It became sort of my first story or
several stories.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
But I did get to meet her later. I had
never met heered.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
This was the best friend of his son, and our
bike bicycling commuter community was from all over the state,
so he didn't even live near us. But Peyton didn't
only care about herself. She as a bar of her treatment,
discovered the Ronald McDonald House and the fact that they
needed blankets, just at least blankets because when people come
(06:55):
and stay there, the Ronald McDonald House will give them
blankets while they're there that they can take home with
them keep. And she said, you know what, I'm going
to do a blanket tying event down our local library.
If you can come, bring some blank go buy Walmart
and get a bunch of five dollar blankets and we'll
cut them up and tie them together and make some
(07:16):
more blankets for Ronald McDonald house. Like so, I couldn't
make your event, but I want to come meet you
and learn more about you. And I show up and
it was Peyton and a bunch of her high school
friends and her parents.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
And a couple of other people, and this weird old
and this weird old dude.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Exactly who was this now fifty some year old guy
just wandering in?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Can I tie blankets with you? I know you've never
met me before?
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I had, I had asked ahead of time. I was like,
this might sound weird, but because of your friend, I
want to know a little bit more about you.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
It was.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
It was a fun day. I don't tie blankets very
well either, so but it was.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
But she over over the years, ended up tying with
her friends and community members hundreds of blankets that ended
up going to Ronald McDonalds. She her cancer went into remission,
really exciting, but then it came back. She underwent a
stem cell transplant her own cells. I can't remember exactly
(08:19):
what type of stem cell treatment that is, but my
dad had it too, same thing my dad did. It's
going through his cancer, but basically that that's stem cell treatment.
They take your platelets for a while, the patient's pay platelets,
and they keep them and then they zap.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
You with a super high dose of chemotherapy.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
With the plan of killing all the cancer cells, but
because it's so high dose, it kills all your bone
marrow and everything else that needs to be in place
for you to survive. So as soon as that's done,
they put stem cells back in you with the hopes
that your bone marrow will kick in again, producing everything live.
(09:01):
And it works for some people. It worked for my
dad for a while too. Lance Armstrong did this. He's
still alive, so it's it's a treatment that sometimes works. Unfortunately,
she was in remission for a little while longer, but
came back and and and Peyton passed away a number
of years ago, But going to that was the first
funeral that I ever went to with somebody that I
(09:24):
had connected with told the story about. But I've been
talking with Kim, her mom, before coming here, and I'm like,
I hope you're okay with me mentioning your daughter's name,
because I want to honor her as part of why
I still.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Do this, and it's important for me.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I'm missing they're doing a golf not golf outing barbecue
foundering for the Peyton Alexander Foundation now that they've started,
and I'm missing it because I'm here. But I said,
this is pretty cool reason to mister barbecue. I'm going
to Memphis and I can have some barbecue there.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Well where barbecue where?
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Where this is in Milwaukee, they're calling it a barbecue whatever.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
They want to if they should have a barbecue fundraiser.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Here, let's go to the fundraiser. That is heartbreak it
is And Peyton connected me through you in starcoma as
a childhood cancer. Mostly childhood cancer. It's the same cancer
my dad had. It's only maybe one percent of adults.
One of Peyton's I was connected to Katie, who is
(10:29):
another one that I've really connected with and the family.
Again virtually, I have not met Katie. She lives in
Reno and Nevada. I live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But Katie
was an amazing person who was also a giver and
an advocate for cancer research. She just passed away in November.
(10:50):
But I wouldn't have known about Katie or the amazing
things that she did. And if you look her up,
I'll give you a link later.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
If you look her.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Up, you give now.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
If you look up Katie's collect on Instagram, you'll find
everything you need to know.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
You'll see, you'll see videos of that.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
She was highlighted quite a bit because of how amazing
she was and how she lived with her cancer. Her
hashtag now that was created when she died is live
life like Katie. She loved National Parks and it was
her goal to visit everyone. I think she made it
to twenty some and several of them a lot of
them after she started getting cancer because she didn't want
(11:31):
to skip out on life just because of this disease
was in her. She wanted to live life. She didn't
know when her last day was.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Could be.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
We'll be right back, so we could say, wow, give
all this blood and give all these cancer, all these playlets,
and these people are still cancer. My answer would be
(12:02):
quality of that life they get living with cancer. Good
happen out bludd. Even if they don't survive and go
into permission, their lives are still enriched and prolonged by
this gift, the simple gift of sitting on your for
twenty minutes for blood two hours or platelets and giving
(12:26):
so that you or someone you love will have what
they need.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
So here's another statistic.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
One hundred percent of us are not going to live forever,
but so if by giving blood or platelets. You can
let somebody live another day or a week, or a
month or years. It's all the same thing. I mean,
we just need to let people live. And if this
can do it, then why not.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
It's so simple, an army of normal folks candidly, I mean,
we're not We're nobody's ever going to mistake Alex for
being particular, right so or or no one's ever going
to say, well, my goodness, look, look look at the
look at the I mean, we should do a thesisis
(13:12):
on billing this army. I mean, this is just simple stuff.
It's normal people seeing here is the need filling it,
celebrating those stories and hopes of surviving, hopes of inspiring
more to do more. Right, this is so simple that
we have had on some guests with some pretty complex
(13:34):
things and that they would have to have a certain
skill set to actually go do those things. So while
we celebrate them and hopefully inspire them, there's really a
small community people that can do what some of those be.
Everybody can do this pretty much as long as you
pass it. But at least everybody could go get tested
to do it, and then two thirds of us can
(13:55):
do it, you know.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
What also too, if you can't do it, they have
volunteered drivers to drive this blood to the hospital. There's
a volunteer that whenever I'm done, it gives me cookies
and a can of cranberry juice.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
When I'm done, you get cookies and cranberry juice.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
That's enough reason to do it right now.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
You guys have Panera bread here? Yeah, Panera donates their
day old bread. Those boxes of Panera bread that I
can pick up pick from.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Really they do that.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Yeah, there's always boxes of that there and good for
bread by the way, a little plug for them.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Yeah, but sometimes that's what shapes the meal I'm going
to cook that Friday night. Well, I'm not exerting myself.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Everybody should be doue. Yeah, and you don't have to
have any skill set. You don't have to have anything.
Just have a willingness and if somebody wants to follow.
I'm not a social media person, Okay, I mean I'm
on it and all that, but I don't know. I
use the wrong words all the time. Now, excuse me,
(14:56):
crap about it. You're not really on it.
Speaker 4 (14:58):
There's you have an account, but you haven't been on
it yourself.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
See I get it.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, see, there you go. So how does somebody find
your stuff?
Speaker 3 (15:10):
So you can find on Instagram. My Instagram handle is
port Norman, so port like Port Washington Norman like my
last name JPN to my initials, so Port Norman JPN.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
And pictures and the stories and the people that you're celebrating. Wow, donate.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yep, you can read the stories and see the pictures.
I always put pictures of them because there's always a
picture of.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
Me at the beginning.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
So if you see me sitting in a chair, that's
a trigger that this is going to be one of
my platelet posts. And actually looking through it, there's more
of those than a lot of my other Because I'm
sixty years old now, I'm not really good at social
media either. I struggled to get it shared on Instagram
and Facebook at the same time. And Facebook, I think
if you just look up John Norman, I don't know what,
(16:01):
there's probably a ton of them, but you could probably
that Instagram is going to be more easy because I
don't On Facebook. I share more to my friends and
not public.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
On Instagram.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
I leave it public because I want if I share
about somebody and it can and it triggers somebody to say, hey,
I want to try this, or you should read this story.
I don't want them to send a link out to
somebody and have it block.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
I want to continue the story.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
I get it. So when you go there, it's a
picture of you first, and it's a picture of the
person you're thinking about that day, yep. And then their
story of their fight with whatever they're afflicted with, and
why their strength inspires you to continue to do this
(16:46):
all the time, all of which, if you ball up,
is intended to inspire others. Yep.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
That's pretty much it. Sometimes it's a short story, sometimes
a little longer.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
But after the Shop Talk episode, we army member Keith Bauch,
he wrote us, and I'm telling you this because he
gives Keith thank you all respect. Your post was wrong.
You sit over there, hush Bill and Alex. Good morning
(17:18):
from tropically cold Minnesota. Clearly this came from a few
months one of my neighbors. I want to be part
of the army that moves the amount of blood donors
from three to four percent, even three to three and
a half. I've given blood in the past, but never
on a consistent basis. I'm going to do my best,
try and give once a month from now on. Your
(17:41):
guest has inspired me to do this. It was interesting
because about a week after your episode, I was listening
to another podcast about the need for blood, plasma and
platelet donations. Another reason for me to give. I have
a daughter in college that gives plasma twice a week.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Thanks for beer money.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
I think that's for beer money. Yeah, it is for
every buddy. But I shared your podcast with her to
reinforce the benefits of what she is doing. Guys, keep
doing what you're doing inspiring us normal folks. Here's why
I'm calling that out just a little bit. We don't
deserve the credit for doing what we're doing inspiring normal folks.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
One time.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
It's all of the stories and all the people that
are inspiring. All we are is the conduit. I read
that to you because this gentleman has clearly been inspired
to do this very thing because of it's awesome. It's awesome.
This guy your neighbor. Do you know?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
I have no idea who Keith is. Never heard that
name of it.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
He's from your neck of the woods.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
He's Minnesota. We don't talk about that. I'm a Packers fan.
He's a Vikings fan.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
I'm sure you don't know might have to reach out
to this. I might lightly suggest that part of your
Instagram stories could be about guys like him to inspire
others as well. It doesn't just have to be the
people getting the play. Someone who's been inspired by your
story could maybe inspire someone else. When I read that
(19:10):
we do. We get lots of emails and correspondence. I'll
read every bit of it. I'll respond to every bit
of it. But when I read this and then I
think about how you reached out to us, and I
think about your story and the connectivity of it all
(19:33):
kind of makes the fact that Alex about a year
and a half ago made me start doing this dumb
thing all worth it. So respectfully, I don't feel like
we're inspiring anybody to be one normal folk one at
a time.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Well, I think you should give yourself a little more
credit though, too. I stumbled on your podcast and what
are you doing? This is different than me. You're sharing
other people's stories. It inspired me to reach out to
you because I think the army of normal folks idea
is it's so easy, like you said, and you do
what you can do for one person. One of the
books that I meant to bring I work at Harley Davidson.
(20:12):
This is so This is a Bike, a book that
kind of reached out to me literally from a Minnesota
used bookstores I was walking through and it's called Nice Bike,
Nice Bike, and it's it's a collection of stories that
the author put together, Mark Sharon Brock, I think is
his name, and I want I want to read.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
I wrote this down because I had to. I had
to go look it up again.
Speaker 1 (20:35):
But what he.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
Focuses on and his his theory is that the three
things that you need to do to make people's lives
better is to acknowledge them, honor them, and to connect
with them. And by acknowledging, honoring, and connecting with people,
you can change the world, one person at a time.
That's always been in the back of my head too
(20:58):
ever since reading that book, also at the beginning of
the whole thing, and I think, I think that goes
a long way. It's simple acknowledge, honor, and connect and
that's that's what we do. That's what you're doing. You're
you're honoring people for the cool stuff that they do,
even if it's.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Normal, it is cool. And it's also only three rather
than twelve, so it's a lot easier to remember than that.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Scouting still had to write it down, though, didn't they
for sixty give yourself a break.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Memory, I don't know. So there you have it, folks.
It's so easy to be an army of normal folks.
And Alex some months ago made the really good point
that I've kind of tagged on and I continue to say,
which is you can serve without even leaving the house.
(21:50):
There's typically people down the hallway that needs service. You
can serve without starting some massive organization. You can go
sit for two hours every two weeks with the new
in your arm and save three lives. You have taken
it to a whole other level by honoring and acknowledging
the stories of these people that you hope will inspire
(22:14):
others to give. And it's worked because Keith from Minnesota
send us an email saying the very same thing, Keith,
I hope you are listening and we'll reach out to
John and y'all connect. You're too close to one another
not to because apparently that's the third activity I spike
(22:36):
is to connect.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Yep, yep, for sure, And I would I would love
to get messages from people.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
If you want to learn more, I'm happy to talk.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
I got to share too, that I've hit one hundred
and sixty donations. There are some people that there are
people there every other week when I go that are
the same people. Oh and Chris and a few other
people that I've met, and they're kind of my platelet buddies.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Every other week.
Speaker 3 (23:16):
There's not the same people because you know, you go
on a trip and all of a sudden, you're every
two weeks is off. But I know there's a person
I've connected with in Sweden who is he's at two hundred.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
There's a guy at Versity.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
The blood center that I go to that is close
to five hundred donations. That's he started donating platelets when
in like nineteen eighty or something like that. Now he's
eighty three years old and he's still going in every
other week to donate platelets.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
But see, as beautiful as those people are, that story
is a little bit of the problem that you see
the same people over and over again. Oh this is
there need to be enough people giving that you don't
know all of the people giving. So hopefully we can look.
If this conversation moves the needle just a little bit,
it's more life saved. And you are a beautiful example
(24:07):
of what we are trying to inspire people to do,
which is just give where you can. And you've turned
it into a passion and a story and everything else,
and that's awesome. But it's so easy give when you can.
And by the way, I think the Red Cross receives
almost forty percent of the blood given.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Possible.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Not very hard to find the Red Cross, Nope, not
very hard to find a blood center. If somebody wants
to reach out to you and connect, let's best way
to get in touch with John.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
You can DM me through Instagram or if you want
to just use a regular old email.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
It's easy too.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
So my email addresses John John at Portnorman's dot com.
Port like Port Washington Norman like my name, with an
s atdn dot com.
Speaker 4 (25:00):
One thing that John and I talked about in advance
of the interview too is listeners can reach out and
share story ideas for him too. So people who are
going through cancer, habit cancer, people who have been beneficiaries
of blood products.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
It could be great for Army members to share that
is a really good point. You have somebody dealing with
this right now, and you want to do one of
the three steps and honor them, do another one of
the three steps with and connect with John, and then
John will do one of the three steps and maybe
(25:31):
share their story.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Or hey, if you feel like doing just doing the
same thing I'm doing. Sitting there in your chair. You
got one arm free, you grab your phone and tell
your story or tell someone else.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
And then you can somehow connect you to it. Absolutely,
you can share it.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Absolutely. Yeah, and shread this around a little bit.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
That's right.
Speaker 4 (25:50):
One more thing before you wrap up your routine beforehand
is pretty funny.
Speaker 3 (25:55):
So it has become a habit. And now it's also
a routine. It's always a Friday morning at six o'clock.
I've tried going in in the afternoons before, but as
it turns out, I'm a coffee addict, and I will
drink coffee all day. And you know, there's a problem
if you drink coffee all day and then you go
and sit in a chair and are expected to be
still for two hours, it doesn't work.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
I'm overhydrated and I'm gonna need to pee well up
and it probably does jump.
Speaker 1 (26:25):
A catheter.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
They would offer one, I'm sure, but I'm not interested
in going there at One of the things that our
blood center used to do is it's similar to platelets.
It's called granulocyites, and it's these are not universal. There's
very specific to a person in the types of proteins
that they have in their blood. And I was asked, actually,
twin brother thing. They called me up and they said,
(26:48):
your brother sent us your way because we need somebody
with exactly your blood type in this protein combination to
donate granular sites for a cancer patient that is in
the hospital waiting for your granular.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Sites literally literally.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
So it's one time where you knew exactly what you're
doing and exactly where it's going.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Yeah, I mean, and they were, they were they were
calling because this particular therapy that this is like a
last ditch effort when they get to the point where
they need granular sites like this. And they were lining
up not just me, but five or six other people
to donate every day for a five or six day period.
(27:29):
And for that one they literally told me, I don't
care if you have to beat you can, We'll get
you depends or something. But you're going to stay here
until we got everything that we need to get out
of you. And with with with platelet donations. If they
have trouble getting the needle in and it doesn't work,
then you just try again another day with the granular sites.
They're like, we'll keep sticking the needle in there until
(27:51):
we find the right spot. This arm doesn't work, we'll
use the other arm. If that doesn't work, well, pray
a leg or something.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
And there's a person literally right there that if you
don't give they die.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Good chance of that, yep, because they they they line
you up and the striper're able to find out.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
No, they for privacy.
Speaker 3 (28:11):
But do you wonder I would love to meet a
recipient someday I have actually been not mine, I mean,
I've met all these other connections.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Sure, so it's it's pretty durrank.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Close to your morning routine, John, I'm.
Speaker 3 (28:26):
Sorry they eat so my morning routine now on Friday morning,
I get up at four point thirty.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
I hit the snooze maybe once or twice.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
I grab a shower, then I the blood center is
about a half an hour drive from my house.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I stop at McDonald's.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I always get a sausage McMuffin with egg and a
hash brown and a small coffee.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So clearly you don't have to eat healthy food to
give platelets.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
Well, they do tell you to eat, but they don't
stay healthy.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
And I'm figuring, you know, if I'm going to save
three lives today, I can have a sausage McMuffin.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
I actually love it.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
It's like five.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Sorry.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
The first thing they do when you get when you
get there, those they take your blood pressure and I'm like,
I often blame the hash brown because it's pretty salty
and stuff.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Maybe it's a health check basically every two weeks and
if I.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Can pass, and I'm like, yeah, so that's it.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (29:18):
Then I go in and I mark the box it
says I've done this before.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
And your twin brother doesn't confuse them, no.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
And they so it is a health check. They'll do.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
There's a questionnaire that you have to fill out so
that they can tell you whether you're eligible or and
it's fifty questions every time, and it's and you so
you notice this when you did your blood donation, right,
It's everything.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
It's what John's getting at. As they ask your sexual history.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
They questions, have you ever been paid to have sex?
Speaker 3 (29:49):
Have you had sexual contact with I mean, it's probably
fifteen questions just about.
Speaker 1 (29:55):
I think there's but it's I think there's time Lisa
would pay me not to have sex. If you want
to know the true that's an.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Add on question depending on how you answer the first one.
But it's because they want your your blood product to
be healthy for the recipient. Of course, it also gets tested,
so I figure I'll be the first to know if
I end up.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
If you had up for something, you'll be the first
to know.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, anything else you want to coverage, John, Not that
I can think of.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
The only the only thing that I was reviewing some
of my notes this morning.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
That and I think I may.
Speaker 3 (30:27):
Have mentioned this to you Alex later on after our
pre interview, was that my dad passed away from cancer
in two thousand and four, of youing Saracoma. My mother
in law died also. They both died at the age
sixty three. My mother in law died of cervical cancer.
And I didn't start this donation have it until twenty seventeen,
(30:52):
so was that thirteen player. I didn't start telling the
stories till after that, And I think that for me,
the reason I have this Beyond Grief book here too
is because it's a double whami sometimes. And I got
introduced to the grief community through the same habit by
meeting these two people, and.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
It has allowed me to process.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
Some of the grief of me losing Dad, and it's
allowed me to dig in a little bit deeper to
what he went through with the answer and what I
got out of being his son for sixty three years.
Sixty three years, I'm sixty nine, say I was born,
you know, just for being his son. And as I
(31:39):
was reading through my notes of I did an Instagram
take over for a week where I shared about my dad.
This was in twenty twenty twenty, and that was so
cathartic for me. Part of it was about the cancer,
but part of it, part of it was about him
living life like Katie. He was the first example of
live life like Katie. Katie was a reminder for me.
(32:01):
They revisited this and got into these stories.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
So it's interesting the storytelling process that all this is
actually healing for survivors very much.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
So it's healing for me.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
I like you've said so many times in your guests too.
I get ten times as much out of this as
anything I'm giving. I mean, I'm donating my platelets, but
this is it's healing for me to tell somebody else's
story and to learn more about my dad, just because.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
It's a beautiful side benefits of the whole gig.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yeah, it could be. You two, go give it a try.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
That's it, John, Thanks for taking the time to come
down here and share your story. Thanks for what you're doing,
Thanks for bringing me, thanks for being an inspiration. And
I really hope, against hope that people listening to us
today will say, Okay, this is an easy one.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I'm gonna go, hope, So and let me know if
you do.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Yeah, I want to let John know. He'll tell your story.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Yeah, there's a pyramid that gets.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
An email us and let us know, because who knows
who might read your name one time and Alex may
call you up and bother you. You never know. Thanks
for being here, buddy, Thank you appreciate it, and thank
you for joining us this week. If John Norman has
inspired you in general, or better yet, to take action
(33:33):
by donating blood, platelets or something else entirely, please let
me know because I am really interested in seeing if
our country can move the needle beyond three pitiful percent.
I'd love to hear about it. If you donate blood,
or patments, plasmo or any of it, let me know
(33:57):
we got to do better. You could write me anytime
at bill at normalfolks dot us, and I promise I
will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, share with friends
and on social subscribe to the podcast, rate it and
review it. Join the army at normalfolks dot us. Consider
becoming a premium member There any and all of these
(34:19):
things that will help us grow an army of normal folks.
I'm Billboard. Until next time, do what you can
Host
Bill Courtney
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