Your Red Cross Update

“I have really depended on blood transfusions my whole life,” says Calvanay Nunley. “If we didn’t have donors, I don’t know where I would be.”

Calvanay has relied on donors since she began receiving blood transfusions at the age of five. Blood transfusions are an important part of her treatment for sickle cell disease, the most common genetic blood disorder in the U.S. Sickle cell disease distorts soft and round red blood cells and turns them hard and crescent shaped. As a result, blood has difficulty flowing smoothly and carrying oxygen to the rest of the body, which may lead to severe pain, tissue and organ damage, anemia, and even strokes.

Without regular red blood cell exchanges every three weeks – known as apheresis – Calvanay might not be able to call herself a mother, nurse, children’s camp director, non-profit founder and sickle cell patient advocate. “I wear many hats,” she says.

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