Contact Toni Gould, Communications & Marketing Director
616-233-8534 or 1-866-MIBLOOD, ext. 1

GRAND RAPIDS, April 29, 2004:  Just before Noon on Friday this week, 150 Grand Rapids area high school students will come face to face with the ultimate meaning of their community service as blood-drive organizers, when 21-year-old cancer survivor Ellie Andrus speaks to them about how blood transfusions helped save her life.

Miss Andrus is the featured speaker at a special thank-you party sponsored by Michigan Community Blood Centers at Craig’s Cruisers, 5730 Clyde Park SW, Wyoming, on April 30, beginning at 11:45 a.m.

Students from high schools all over Kent County who coordinated blood drives this school year are to be the guests of honor.

"I don't think I could have made it without the platelets and red blood cells I received while I was undergoing chemotherapy," said Miss Andrus, who herself was a student blood-drive organizer at Kenowa Hills High School when she learned she had acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

While being treated at DeVos Children's Hospital, Miss Andrus received approximately 30 units of blood components. Treatment for cancer often reduces the body's ability to manufacture its own supply of blood cells. Blood transfusions may help replenish depleted blood-cell levels and support the body's immune system.

"I want these students to know that when they organize blood drives and get people to donate blood, it really does save a lot of people's lives," Miss Andrus said. "I'm one of those people."

By the end of the current school year, Michigan Community Blood Centers will have collected more than 4,500 pints of blood during 70 blood drives at 40 high schools. Thanks to these drives, well over 13,000 people may have received the gift of life, as each pint of donated blood can help three to four people.

By her own estimate, Miss Andrus is about a year away from being considered cured of ALL.  She has earned an associate's degree from Grand Rapids Community College and next will study for a bachelor's degree at Grand Valley State University.

Michigan Community Blood Centers, an independent nonprofit blood bank headquartered in Grand Rapids, provides 100 percent of the regular blood supply to hospitals in three large regions of Michigan, including all hospitals in Kent County, which include major regional medical centers treating patients from many surrounding areas.

© Michigan Community Blood Centers