After her mother Shirley was diagnosed with incurable blood cancer, Lori Giuffre made sure that her family made the most out of the time they had left. “Our mom, grandma and great-grandma was able to share her 90^th and 91^st birthdays with her six children, 12 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren,” she says. “We were blessed to spend two years with her that we never would have had.”

Lori credits donated platelets for this precious extra time spent with the family matriarch. “She needed to have exact-matched platelets—of course, rare,” she says. “Many days, we had to pray for those few people that were matches for her to donate, without us ever being able to thank them.”

Shirley passed away in 2023 after a valiant cancer battle, and Lori shares her mother’s story as a way to thank the selfless individuals who gave her family the priceless gift of time. “How do you thank people who are so generous with their time of giving blood, especially platelets?” she asks. “Please never think that you are not appreciated or that your gift doesn’t matter. We can tell you that you do, and we cannot be more thankful for your time and gift!”

People need people, make a difference in someone’s life by donating blood.

We must rely on each other for the gift of blood, and patients in your community rely on the generosity of Versiti’s blood donors to help. Please consider scheduling an appointment to donate. If this is your first time, donating blood is quick, easy and relatively painless. And, it is a great way to give back and help patients in your community.