More Blood Drives Canceled; More Donors Needed Feb. 23, 2015

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Old Man Winter is still having his way with the community’s blood supply, with more blood drives canceled over the weekend and today.

In all, Kentucky Blood Center had 50 blood drives cancel last week, which resulted in more than 1,200 donations lost.

“While we lost 1,200 donations, we were still able to provide blood for the transfusions performed last week. That’s because we had blood on the shelves and help from some other community blood centers,” said Martha Osborne, KBC’s executive director of marketing and recruitment. “We also saw an outpouring of generosity last Friday when several hundred donors came to our centers to roll up their sleeves.

“Moving forward, we need to fill that blood supply deficit and ensure we have blood on the shelves for when the next trauma or transplant happens or when the next snow storm occurs, and people can’t get to the donor center or blood drive,” said Osborne.

KBC has five donor centers and daily blood drives. Donor centers are listed below, and blood drive locations can be found at kybloodcenter.org.