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Michigan Blood hoping for donations for World Blood Donor Day

Posted at 6:12 AM, Jun 14, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-14 06:12:50-04

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Today is World Blood Donor Day, which comes at a good time for Michigan Blood, which says donations in the summer time drop drastically.

Michigan Blood works with patients at nearly 70 hospitals across Michigan. They are the only provider to donated blood to Kent County's hospitals.

The organization says with more people traveling and spending time outside in the summer, donations of blood drops off.

But this year the supply is especially low, because much of it has went to school shooting victims.

Michigan Blood says the need for O negative blood is critical as it can be safely given to all patients.

"Right now are greatest need is O negative blood and O positive blood believe it or not so we have a campaign going on right now to collect O negative blood," said Jim Wilson, President of Michigan Blood.

"The reason that is so significant is just across the state of Michigan only nine percent of the population are O negative blood types," Wilson said.

If you do donate today and are an O negative blood type who can donate whole blood or double red throughout the month, you can get a $20 Amazon gift card.