Retired blood donor Stacey Seals said he never thought about what it would take to give over 70 gallons of blood in his lifetime – a threshold that he surpassed in early 2022.
“That wasn’t a desire. That was just kind of the way it came out,” Seals, who for a while gave blood the maximum allowed times of twice a month – totaling 24 donations a year – said in a phone interview.
Along with his brother-in-law, 81-year-old Seals started giving blood at Chattanooga area hospitals in his early 20s after his sister was diagnosed with lymphoma and needed to undergo blood transfusions as part of her treatment.
“At that time, they solicited donors by blood type so that they could give it straight to the one that was needing it,” Seals said. “A lot of the people that I went and gave blood to, I didn’t know – had no clue who they were – somebody just said that they needed blood, and they needed O-positive, so we went and gave.”
Linda Hisey, community engagement and development administrator at Blood Assurance, said via phone the old method of hospital-based blood donation made it much more difficult to get blood quickly and efficiently to those who needed it. That’s why local leaders from the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Medical Society, the hospitals and the Chattanooga Jaycees began the process of creating the nonprofit community blood center known as Blood Assurance.