St. Jude on-campus donor center seeks new blood
Dr. Lili Kotmayer donates blood at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital on March 27. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck five years ago, the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital’s Blood Donor Center was forced to close its campus to protect its vulnerable patients.
Employees underwent regular COVID-19 testing on site, and they stepped up to donate lifesaving blood and platelets.
“It was a scary time for everyone,” said Kimberly Spencer Foster, the longtime blood-donor recruiter for the St. Jude Blood Donor Center at 262 Danny Thomas Place. “They were right here in our backyard, and they knew that we needed (them).”
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Aisling Mäki
Aisling Mäki covers health care, banking and finance, technology and professions. After launching her career in news two decades ago, she worked in public relations for almost a decade before returning to journalism in 2022.
As a health care reporter, she’s collaborated with The Carter Center, earned awards from the Associated Press and Society of Professional Journalists and won a 2024 Tennessee Press Association first-place prize for her series on discrepancies in Shelby County life expectancy by ZIP code.
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