DAYTON — It’s that time of year when blood donations are low, but people are in need of blood to help save their lives.
Tracy Morgan, Solvita’s Vice President for Donor Services, said that the reason January is Blood Donor Awareness Month is that it’s typically the hardest month out of the year to get people to donate.
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“We come off the holidays, Christmas celebrations, people are out celebrating and enjoying life,” Morgan told News Center 7′s Taylor Robertson.
While others are in a hospital room or cancer center waiting on that life-saving donation. That is one of the reasons Judy Lamusga said she’s passionate about being a donor.
“It saves lives. How can you not be committed to that?” Lamusga said.
She’s so committed that she is Solvita’s second highest-ranking female donor, donating over 560 times.
“One of the first times I gave platelets, my nurse Vicki walked over and put this tag on my linen bag that the platelets were going in and I said, ‘What is that?’ She said, ‘That’s the name of the person who’s going to get your platelets.’ I went ‘What?’ she recalled.
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Although the nurse couldn’t tell her who the person was, she did tell her that she was a cancer patient.
Now, Lamusga donates every other Friday each month.
“It’s a passion when you start giving blood and you start finding out what you gave, saved the life of a person and made a difference for a whole family,” she said.