March 4, 2026

Doug Velander became a blood donor as soon as he was able without giving it much thought. After seeing his father donate for much of his life, when a drive took place at his high school in Memphis, Doug thought to himself, “I can do that.”

So, Doug gave blood periodically, and when he saw a commercial or a news story talking about the need for blood, it reinforced what he was already doing.

But 24 years ago, the notion of fulfilling a need hit home. His firstborn, Dana, was just 2 years old when she was diagnosed with hepatoblastoma, a rare form of liver cancer.

Dana survived, but not without the help of blood transfusions. Initially, because of complications from surgery, Dana required assistance from an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, a life-support device that temporarily takes over the function of the heart and/or lungs (in Dana’s case, her lungs). The ECMO machine needed steady supplements of donated blood.

Three and a half years later, Dana’s cancer returned and she had to undergo chemotherapy. As is the case with most chemotherapy recipients, whole blood and platelet transfusions were necessary to replenish healthy red blood cells that were collateral damage from the toxic chemo treatments. Dana beat the cancer again.

Much of his daughter’s battle is a blur to Doug now, emotional wounds healed by the second chance at life, but Doug still remembers sitting in a hospital room in Louisville and seeing blood bags hanging by his daughter’s bed.

“Watching my daughter need blood, that really cemented for me, the fact that, oh my gosh, I’ve got to get blood, and I’ve got to get a lot more people to give if I can,” Doug said.

Doug is a pilot, so he must be strategic when he gives, but anytime he has a few days off and he’s eligible, Doug makes a point of donating. Since 2016, he has made 40 whole blood donations with KBC alone.

“It's not pain free, but the pain is nothing compared to people who need the blood to literally survive,” Doug said. “Kentucky Blood Center does do a good job of making it simple yet still safe for everybody and for the public when you donate blood. I just put picture myself in somebody's situation who needs it.”

And as time has passed and Doug has shared his family’s need for blood, it’s opened his eyes to how prevalent the need really is. One in four people will need a blood transfusion in their lifetime, and a quarter of all blood donated goes to cancer patients.

“Every time we tell a story about my daughter, every time somebody goes, ‘Oh yeah, my grandpa needed surgery, and he had to have blood,’ ” Doug said. “And then somebody else says, ‘Oh yeah, my aunt, my uncle needed something. They needed blood.’ So, it happens to a lot of people. Not everybody talks about it, but once you start talking about it with other people, it becomes apparent how necessary it is for everybody who can give blood to do it.”