University of Lethbridge students share stories of how donating blood saves lives

University of Lethbridge students are partnering with Canadian Blood Services to encourage students to become blood donors. Canadian Blood Services in Calgary is hoping to fill 860 appointment slots starting Dec. 23 to keep pace with demand during the pandemic.

Lethbridge — University of Lethbridge Human Resources student Kate Potts knows donating blood can save a person’s life.

That's because someone's donated blood helped to save hers.

“When I was four years old, I was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia, which is a very rare and aggressive form of cancer in children," said Potts. "Over seven months at the hospital I went through four intensive rounds of chemotherapy and received over 70 blood transfusions.

"I had a ton of complications and the transfusions that I received really helped to save my life," she said.

Potts is one of the students at the University of Lethbridge, along with seven other universities across Canada, that have partnered up with Canadian Blood Services to encourage student to join Canada’s Lifeline by becoming blood donors.

Pott said she has been cancer-free for 17 years, and is now sharing her story, helping to spread the word about the importance of blood donations and learning their blood type.

The prairie region is hoping to help 3000 students learn their blood type and in Lethbridge alone, Canadian Blood Services hopes to tap 100 people to help recruit the 30 new donors needed every week to meet patient demand.

Many students at U of L made sure they could take 15 minutes in between classes to donate.

U of L student Annaliese Downey said she’s been a blood donor ever since her friend passed away in car accident during high school.

"Her death was so tragic and so quick," Downey said. "The positive part was that the other person that was in the vehicle, had survived because of peoples' blood donations. It actually helped keep her alive. So again I think it’s just important."

Downey already has an appointment set up to donate blood at U of L and has tips for students on how they can prepare to donate.

“You want to be drinking a whole bunch of water and staying hydrated," she said. "Eat a lot of protein and stuff like that. You don’t want fast foods, because you want your blood to be as healthy as possible when you donate.”

In order to keep up with demand, Canadian Blood Services say they need over 110,000 new blood donors this year.

Student can make an appointment to donate blood during any of the Blood Donate events across the prairie region.

For more information visit https://blood.ca/en/blood/donating-blood/whats-my-blood-type