Relief From Sickle Cell Disease Made Possible by Red Cross and FedEx

If you could, with relative ease, relieve someone else’s physical suffering from an agonizing blood disorder, would you?

Causing extreme pain, sickle cell disease is the most common inherited blood disorder in the U.S., according to the National Institutes of Health. Symptoms can be reduced or prevented with frequent blood transfusions…people like you are the only source of blood. Across the U.S., about 100,000 people suffer from the disease - primarily of African descent. Blood from people of the same race or similar ethnicity can help prevent complications from transfusion therapies.

As the nation’s largest blood provider, the American Red Cross manages one of the largest blood safety programs in the U.S., helping to ensure the ongoing blood needs all patients are met, including those with sickle cell.

While tens of thousands of donors gave blood in response to a blood shortage caused by the coronavirus outbreak earlier this spring, it’s important to remember that red blood cells must be transfused within 42 days of donations and platelets within just five days, so they must constantly be replenished. There is no known end date to this pandemic. The Red Cross depends on the support of healthy and eligible blood donors to ensure patient needs are met year-round.

FedEx Cares

Since 1995, FedEx has provided in-kind shipping services to the Red Cross. FedEx is proud that in addition to helping Red Cross quickly get relief supplies where needed in response to natural disasters, Red Cross also uses its in-kind account to deliver blood where needed. Some of that blood will provide relief to individuals suffering from sickle cell disease.

Want to know more? Please click here to find out more about Red Cross efforts and how giving blood is an easy way to offer hope to individuals suffering from this agonizing disease.

***Photo courtesy of American Red Cross