Grant Brewster had been living his entire life in Northern Virginia with a condition he didn’t even know he had—genetic hemo-chromatosis. Iron was quietly building up in his body, affecting his organs without warning. When he finally got answers, the solution sounded almost too simple: give blood. Regularly.
So every week, he showed up and rolled up his sleeve. But after donating, he still had to go from doctor to doctor, getting stuck with more needles just to track his iron levels. Sitting there one day, it hit him...Why couldn’t that same blood be used to run the tests he needed?
He asked around. Blood centers said they didn’t do that. Doctors said it wasn’t their system. Everyone had a reason why it couldn’t happen. That answer didn’t sit well. So Grant walked away from his job as a software engineer and decided to build something better.
He launched Goodlabs with a simple idea: make blood donation a two-way street. Now, at an Inova Health System blood center in Centreville, donors don’t just give—they get something meaningful in return. Through Goodlabs, they can opt into free blood work panels, learning about things like cholesterol, blood sugar, hormones, and overall health.
And the hope is that it becomes a win-win. More people are motivated to donate, helping keep the blood supply steady for life-saving care. At the same time, donors walk away with insights they might not have otherwise discovered.
What started as one man’s frustration has turned into a new way of thinking about blood donation. Not just as an act of giving, but as an opportunity to take care of yourself, too.