KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
The Children’s Hospital Los Angeles will be hosting the “Blood Drive with Kennedy’s Courage” at Real Life Church in Valencia to build up supplies for children fighting various forms of cancer.
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Kennedy Urban was diagnosed at 18 months old with stage IV, a rare form of childhood cancer, in 2013 and battled for over a year with the disease in the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Her disease required a tube to be fed through her chest, several rounds of chemotherapy, tumor removal surgery and like that of many other children at the hospital, many blood transfusions during treatment.
The drive will be held on Sept. 30 from 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. at a mobile blood bank truck in the parking lot of the church, located at 23841 Newhall Ranch Road.
The event was put together by Raul Gonzalez, the blood drive coordinator of the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
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“It’s a way to get out there in the community,” said Gonzalez.
Donors can give blood even without an appointment but the hospital has created a page to schedule an appointment, and encourages those wanting to donate to find a time that works for them in the schedule. Those interested can sign up for an appointment here.
“It’s in honor of (Kennedy),” Gonzales said. “Her family does a blood drive every year, as a way of giving back to the hospital.”
Kennedy was declared cancer-free earlier this year.
The Children’s Hospital Los Angeles requires about 1,200 units of blood and components every month in order to continue treatment on patients. Officials use blood drives as a way to get the resources that the children need.
This drive, however, is part of a series of events promoted by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and Santa Clarita families in the month of September as part of childhood cancer awareness month, to raise public awareness of adolescent cancers and help defeat them.
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