CHURCHVILLE, Md. — A call for blood donations drew dozens of people to Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Harford County in Churchville to give of themselves.
“Anything we can do to help people out,” said Sue Knause of Havre de Grace, “Like I said, it doesn’t take me any time; 15 minutes out of my day.”
The inspiration for the annual blood drive is Jennifer Patterson of Bel Air.
The gift of life in Churchville; blood drive comes amid national shortage
“About three years ago, I was pregnant and I went in for routine scanning and everything and they actually caught that I had leukemia,” said Patterson.
After giving birth, patterson had go through chemotherapy and part of that process was getting a lot of blood.
In the wake of becoming cancer free, she wanted to give back and called on her friend, Erin Gallagher, to help.
“She asked for people to donate blood as part of her fortieth birthday, because of the number of pints she needed to receive during her treatment,” recalled Gallagher, “I cannot give blood due to a medical condition so instead I decided to host a blood drive.”
What’s become an annual drive this year comes amid a national blood crisis.
“We have a shortage of blood on the shelf so we have less than one-day’s supply of ‘O’ type blood on the shelf,” said Curt Luthye of the American Red Cross, “and ‘O’ type blood is used for people who have cancer, who need emergency surgeries and often for babies in the NECU.”
The Red Cross says if it could just get three more donors at each of its blood drives this summer, the crisis would end.
It’s a shortage, which reminds Jennifer Patterson of her own fight for life when she required two pints of blood and two units of platelets a day when both were in short supply.
“Literally, it saved my life, like every person who gave blood, I’m like, ‘You saved a life’, and people… it’s something small you can do and people don’t realize how valuable it is,” said Patterson, “You’re literally saving lives through blood, and I wouldn’t be here without those donations.”
