Rob: Two things are all that's needed for one person to save up to three
people's lives, an hour of their time and a pint of their blood.
Our Jessica Betts explains.
Jessica: Every day, the American Red Cross is busy collecting blood from
thousands of people willing to help someone they'll never meet.
I met a woman named Lauren Larson at the Tulsa Red Cross, who is traveling
all over the country with a personal message of survival and gratitude.
With more than two hundred units of blood, Lauren's life was spared, and she's
here to tell everyone why.
Jessica: Five million people require a blood transfusion
every year in this county.
And 7years ago, Lauren Larson was one o them.
Lauren Larson: I was pregnant for the first, and I assure you the last,
time in my life, and I had a great pregnancy.
I was very fit.
I was a runner.
I was a six-time marathoner, a non-smoker.
I was the picture of health.
Jessica: But something happened.
Larson: I got very ill, and an emergency c-section was performed to save my
baby, after which my body just shut down.
And I spent six weeks in the intensive care unit during which time I
received over 200 pints of donated blood, every last drop of it from complete
strangers who took the time to go into a Red Cross and give of
themselves for one hour.
Jessica: Surviving a near death experience, and forever, grateful.
Larson: I got out of that situation.
It took me a year and a half to go through recovery, and it was
during that time that I realized how grateful I was feeling,
how fortunate I was.
What if the blood hadn't been available in my community
when I needed it?
My little girl would be growing up without her mother.
Jessica: And Larson has fallen in love with the cause that saved her life.
Encouraging all who will, to donate what we may need one day.
Larson: Statistically speaking, roughly 1 in 3 people will require a life
saving blood transfusion at some point in their lives.
So there's no escaping this issue.
I can tell you that, the blood supply in this country
has never been safer.
I can tell you that with the amount of blood I received, which was more
than 15 times my normal blood volume, if something was going to go wrong,
we'd know it by now.
Jessica: It's safe, and could save you, or someone you love.
Larson: Ask yourself if you would endure that kind of a pinch to save the
lives of one of the three most important people in your life.