A blood drive in support of Hopkinsville native Chase Pemberton will be held Monday, May 5, from noon to 6 p.m. at First Christian Church, 2601 S. Walnut Street.
Leslie Sorrell, Pemberton’s aunt, told the Hoptown Chronicle that the 23-year-old has leukemia. He receives chemotherapy and blood platelets on a daily basis as a patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Myelosuppression/Stem Cell Transplant Unit in Nashville.
“He will have a bone marrow transplant in the near future,” Sorrell said in an email. “He may spend up to seven weeks in the hospital. (He’s been there two weeks.)”
All blood types can donate, but O negative blood is especially important because it can be safely given to any recipient, regardless of blood type.
Sorrell stated that her nephew’s medical team informed the family that “there is a critical blood shortage in the area.”
Pemberton graduated from Hopkinsville High School and Western Kentucky University. He relocated to Nashville last year for a job at Dell Inc.
Blood Assurance, a non-profit that serves hospitals in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, and Kentucky, will organize the donation drive.
A QR code is available for those who wish to schedule a donation time. For more information on donating, contact Suzanne Adkisson, a Blood Assurance representative, at 931-367-3541.
