SAN ANGELO, Texas — January is National Blood Donor Month, dedicated to encourage people to roll up their sleeves and donate blood. It's also a time where national blood supply shortages are evident.
Vitalant Donor Recruitment Supervisor Linda Grace says blood shortages are most common after the holidays.
“This is not unusual coming out of the holidays, we have Christmas and New Year's back-to-back within a week and of course, people are celebrating and they're with their families and they're doing things as they should, but they are not thinking of donating blood. That has greatly impacted locally, but this is a national problem right now, that means all blood types are needed now,” Grace said.
She said the blood donation process takes about an hour. However, that hour can mean a lifetime for someone in the hospital waiting for blood.
“If someone you know or love is in the hospital and they need blood it can only come from you as a volunteer blood donor. That's why you need to donate because you never know what's going to happen from one moment to the next,” Grace said.
Marty Akins has been a blood donor since the 90s when he discovered his blood type was O-negative, the universal blood type. Akins said he donates every two to three weeks.
“It’s a way to be of help to the community in general but people in need in particular,” he said.
Akins said for a long time he only donated blood until Vitalant explained the value of platelet plasma because of its benefit for patients.
“It’s a very small effort and sacrifice to make that really does an incredible amount of good. Routinely I get updates that say 'Wow! Your blood platelets plasma was used for someone in a life-threatening situation',” Akins said.
There will be community blood drives throughout the rest of the week to help restock the supply in the Concho Valley:
- Wednesday - 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. - Southgate Church of Christ, 528 Country Club Road
- Friday - 10 :30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. - Concho Valley Community Action Agency, Blood Mobile next to Mesquite Bean Café at the Cactus Hotel, 36 E. Twohig Ave.
- Saturday - 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. - Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, Best Buy parking lot, 4325 Sunset Drive