Central California Blood Center in need for donations

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- As the summer months approach, the Central California Blood Center is approaching a challenging and critical time of need for donors.

"Kids are out of school, high schools aren't able to do their drives, but at the same time, the need is still really great for our hospitals," Central California Blood Center Director of PR and Marketing, Abby Minong, explained.

All donations stay within our Central California community, and just one donation can save up to three lives.

"It could be your loved one, family, neighbor, friend, or co-worker. You just never know when it could affect one of your loved ones," Minong stated.

Some donors even receive notifications like this that show who they could be helping.

"Our hospital partners need blood products every single day," Minong said. "We have patients going through trauma, major surgery, cancer."

Helping the community motivates many to continue to donate like Judi Imfeld.

"If you have to go to the hospital, you might be in need of blood too and it's not going to be there if people don't donate," Imfeld stated.

Mark Rodriguez has been donating for nearly 3 decades after his 2-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer.

"He didn't need the blood but he was close. His blood count was real low, so ever since '97, we started donating blood," Rodriguez explained.

Donors can give blood every 8 weeks and be a lifeline for patients in need.

"It's just a little pain to make someone else to be better," Rodriguez said.

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