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Blood Drives in Western Kentucky Aimed at Alleviating Summer Supply Shortages

Flickr Creative Commons/EC-JPR

  The American Red Cross chapter serving southern and western Kentucky is trying to avoid an emergency shortage of certain blood types.

The Red Cross Tennessee Valley region is running extremely low on donations of O-negative, B-negative, and A-negative blood types.

Spokeswoman Lindsay English says the regional chapter has received about 1,400 fewer donations in June and July compared to the previous ten months.

“This time of year is always really challenging for blood collection, just because of people being so busy, and having different schedules and vacation plans. And now people are thinking about back to school.”

The Red Cross is also seeking donations of type AB blood, which can be given to patients of all blood types. The group is also putting out the call for donors of platelets, a key clotting component in blood used to help cancer patients, surgical patients, adn blood marrow recipients.

There will be a blood drive Wednesday in Christian County from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Herndon Fire Department, located at 10633 Lafayette Road.

Kevin is the News Director at WKU Public Radio. He has been with the station since 1999, and was previously the Assistant News Director, and also served as local host of Morning Edition. He is a broadcast journalism graduate of WKU, and has won numerous awards for his reporting and feature production. Kevin grew up in Radcliff, Kentucky and currently lives in Glasgow.
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