"Not everyone can do it, so there's always a great need for blood donations," says 613 time donor Wendell Clark.
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Some of the world’s most well-known brands, landmarks and sporting teams have dropped the letters A, B and O from their names as part of a campaign to raise awareness for blood donations.
Launched by UK organisation NHS Blood and Transplant in an effort to increase blood donation, the week-long campaign titled ‘Missing Type’ involves 25 blood services from 21 countries (including the Australian Red Cross), according to News Corp, and was inspired by a 30 per cent drop in donations in the past seven years.
Qantas, National Australia Bank, Coles, Australia Post, Sydney Opera House, Surf Life Saving NSW, and the TV show Neighbours are among the list of brands that have jumped on board the campaign by dropping the letters A, B and O from their names and encouraging people to ‘fill in the gaps’ and donate.
Three of Hollywood's biggest stars were in El Cajon, Calif., to pull off the surprise of a lifetime for a teen battling leukemia.
On Monday morning, 18-year-old Ryan Wilcox, a student at Grossmont High, opened his door to find Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Evans. They flew in to Gillespie Field and showed up at Ryan’s home.
“I had no words,” Wilcox told ABC15 sister station 10News.
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Chris Evans ✔@ChrisEvans
Today I got to shake the hand of a true warrior named Ryan Wilcox. He's cooler than I could ever hope to be. Thanks for the hospitality Wilc
7:00 PM - 23 May 2016
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Chris Evans ✔@ChrisEvans
ox family! And a big hug and kiss to two of my favs@RobertDowneyJr and @GwynethPaltrow for making it happen!
7:02 PM - 23 May 2016
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Wilcox is a huge fan of the Avengers. He was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor at the age of three. Doctor’s said he wasn’t going to make it past the age of five. But at the age of seven years old, his tumor was removed.
“Ryan has been a fighter his whole life,” said Amy Wilcox, Ryan's mother.
After nine years, his cancer was back. Last, year, he was diagnosed with a rare form of Leukemia.
Paltrow heard about Ryan's story through the long tentacles of social media. She contacted his family and set up the surprise visit at the family's El Cajon home. Then she brought along a couple of her celebrity superhero friends.
Ryan identifies with Captain America.
“He never gives up…always high spirited.”
“With my family by my side, that's how I got through it. And my friends praying for me.”
The movie stars spent about an hour with the family.
“It was so funny, they came and they sat down on the ground,” Amy Wilcox said. “It was just great, it almost like they were our friends.”
Friends with superpowers for Ryan's soul.
Earlier this month, Evans sent Wilcox a special message that was played during a surprise assembly at Grossmont High.
A college graduate in Georgia who survived childhood cancer twice has returned to the hospital where doctors saved her life— this time, not to undergo treatment, but to help others through similar plights that she endured as a little girl.
Fox 5 Atlanta reported that 24-year-old Amelia Ballard, of Macon, Ga., was diagnosed with childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), cancer of the bone marrow, at 17 months old. She beat the disease, but it relapsed when she was 3. Health care workers at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta oversaw her treatment, which included chemotherapy regimens, total body and cranial radiation, and a bone marrow transplant, for which Ballard’s brother was a match.
"I remember some of the scans, some of the treatment,” Ballard told the news station. “But it's mostly like my birthday party that I had here. It was a ‘Lion King’ theme. I remember all my family and friends coming to the hospital.”
Alfonso Hoffman, a 13-year-old boy fighting Leukemia, was named an honorary K-9 officer by the California Highway Patrol (CHP) last week.
The Southern Division of the CHP heard that Alfonso wants to be a K-9 officer when he grows up and they then decided to make him an honorary part of their unit.
See their Facebook post below:
Alfonso and his "K-9" took pictures with the CHP unit and received an official plaque.
The Southern Division of the CHP uses their K-9 unit for highway drug interdiction, bomb detection, criminal apprehension, and assistance to allied agencies.
DAYTON (WRGT) -- Wendell Clark is a bit of a legend at the Community Blood Center in Dayton. That's because over the past 30-plus years, Clark has donated a CBC-record 613 times and counting.
"It makes you feel good because you're helping somebody out that will give them a chance to live their life instead of having their life cut short because of a disease or an injury of something," Clark said.
Clark says he started donating at a mobile center in Preble County when he joined some co-workers one day on a whim. He says it's snowballed since then. Now, Clark donates not only blood but platelets, too. Those are routinely needed for cancer therapy, open-heart surgery, blood disorders and organ transplant.
Clark never missed an appointment over those 30 years until 2014 when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. But he says his first thoughts after the diagnosis weren't about his own health.
"The first thing that went through my mind was I can't donate blood," Clark said.
After undergoing successful surgery, Clark had to wait two years before he was eligible again to donate. And sure enough, Clark was back in his donating chair the first day he was able.
"As far as I was concerned I'd taken a break for two years," Clark said. "So yes, I was back in the chair right away."