CULLMAN, Ala. – The annual City of Cullman v. Cullman County blood drive took place Friday, with four LifeSouth bloodmobiles parked around town. In past years, the drive has been a friendly “competition” between the City of Cullman and Cullman County; however, this year both parties united to do the drive as one.
LifeSouth Donor Recruiter Melanie Moore shared the importance of donating blood.
“If blood’s not there when you need it, you never get a second chance, ever,” she said. “With the unique role that LifeSouth plays in the community, a lot of people ask how are we are different from other blood providers. We’re your community blood provider. If somebody you love is hospitalized in north Alabama and they need blood, 100% of that comes from LifeSouth. We’re not taking from you and sending it off to Seattle or California; you’re donating locally and you’re saving lives of people that are close to you.”
She continued, “One unit has the potential to save up to three lives. Most people don’t need whole blood; they need other components- either red blood cells or the plasma or the platelets- so we take that donation and put it on a spinner to centrifuge and break it into those three components and that’s where the three lives come from. Usually, on this particular drive, we usually collect 150-plus units. That goes a long way. With three patients and all of their family members and friends and people that love them, that’s a huge impact in the community! We’re talking about 450 patients-plus, and that person is still with us today because that blood was there. That’s why it’s so important, because the need never goes away.”
With the blood collected by LifeSouth staying local and within north Alabama, Moore said, “It’s very good odds (on the blood staying in Cullman). Out of our district- our district hub is in Madison- we supply 14 hospitals in north Alabama. There’s a list on our website that you can go to. Cullman Regional is certainly one of them.”
LifeSouth is now testing blood for COVID-19 antibodies.
Said Moore, “Post COVID-19, we just started doing this today, testing the blood. Every donor that comes through is now having their blood tested for the COVID-19 antibodies, which is not the COVID-19 test, but there’s so many people that wonder if they were sick back in December, January, February. I was among them; I had some sort of respiratory crud that was going on and I was very curious to find out if maybe I was asymptomatic or just had a light case and had those antibodies. Unfortunately, I did not have the antibodies, but it’s a big deal and a lot of people are choosing to donate now because of that.”
Those who donated received an exclusive T-shirt and coupons from local restaurants, and this reporter can say she’ll be wearing that shirt and redeeming those coupons with pride, knowing she helped people.
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