Coffee Memorial Blood Center of Amarillo, the organization that provides blood and blood products to the hospitals and medical facilities of the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, has announced that people who step up and donate blood between now and January 12 will become eligible to win a $5,000 cash prize. “Whether the prized helps cover bills, supports a project of simply offers peace of mind, one lucky donor will start the year with a meaningful boost,” said Brad Duggan, the executive director of Coffee Memorial.
The family of a young girl dealing with leukemia will also receive $5,000 to help with medical expenses as part of the campaign. The girl, named Millie Bontempo, required multiple transfusions of platelets and other blood products during her treatment. Her mother credits the transfusions with being critical to saving her daughter’s life, according to the Coffee Memorial website.
Coffee Memorial is still urgently seeking donors with type O blood. As reported in the December 25-26 edition of the News-Press, O- is the universal type given to patients in emergency situations to keep them alive until their own blood can be typed. Increasingly, health professionals are able to use O+ blood in a similar manner in some situations. O+ is kept on hand in emergency rooms and air ambulances…