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United Blood Services reopens office

New Durango location aims to build donor base
Brittany Rea with United Blood Services helps Katherine Campana donate blood at the “Pint For Pint” blood drive held by the Durango Bootleg Society at the American Legion in 2012.

Nineteen months after closing its office in Durango because of limited activity, United Blood Services is reopening May 26 at 1970 East Third Avenue, Suite 107.

“We’re trying to rebuild our donor base,” Nancy Cumming, the organization’s senior recruiter, said Thursday. “We lost quite a few regular donors when we closed the office in Bodo Park. I’m still hearing about it.”

The Bodo Industrial Park office, which closed in 2013, attracted up to 200 donors a month, Cumming said. At the time, an additional 300 people a month gave blood to the mobile units, she said.

United Blood Services merged with Denver-based Bonfils Blood Center about the time the Bodo Office closed, Cumming said. The merger makes the chain second only to the Red Cross in blood collections, she said.

The new United Blood Services office, adjacent to the Durango Public Library, should make it easier for residents of the Four Corners to donate blood, Cumming said.

As an inducement to help mark the inauguration by giving blood, every donor will receive a free movie ticket for use at Durango Stadium 9.

United Blood Services mobile units will continue to operate, Cumming said. Thirty to 40 monthly drives send mobile units to businesses, schools and other organizations. Potential new hosts can call Cumming at (970) 701-9112.

Donors can make reservations at (800) 333-8037, at (505) 325-1505 or at www.UnitedBloodServices.org.

Because it requires 24 hours to prepare some blood components for use, blood must be available before it’s needed.

“The demand for blood always is increasing, but fortunately, advances in technology allow us to do more with blood,” Cumming said. “AB-type blood can be given only to a person with AB blood; but today, technology makes it possible to withdraw AB plasma and platelets, which can be given to other blood types.”

If all eligible donors – 16-year-old minimum and in good health – donated regularly, which is three to four times a year, there would no longer be blood shortages, Cumming said.

daler@durangoherald.com



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