Blood donors needed

Blood banks across the country are seeing fewer donations as blood drives are forced to cancel to slow the spread of COVID-19. Chase the Music traditionally hosts the annual Lyons Easter Blood Drive. This year, we are forced to cancel the drive, but the need for blood donations is as great as ever. Accident victims, surgeries, research, transfusions, cancer treatments, and so on all require blood. The need is continuous, as blood has a limited shelf-life: 42 days for whole blood, and only five days for platelets. (Blood that has expired or is not utilized for human patients doesn’t go to waste. It can still be used in research labs.)