By JILL MCNEAL
6 News Anchor/Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - For the first time ever, Medic Regional Blood Center set out to introduce some of its donors to one of the people they actually helped save.
It's was an emotional day for Katelyn Norman, 13. Her journey started more than a year ago with a diagnosis of osteosarcoma, a cancerous bone tumor in her right arm. Doctors found the cancer had also spread to her lungs.
"Now I'm on a new kind of chemo and they want to keep me on that for a year," she said.
She gets chemo every three weeks, five days in the hospital each time, and then a blood transfusion. She's gotten 78 pints of blood so far.
"If I didn't have those blood transfusions, I would have died," she said.
The four donors Katelyn got to meet Monday have been giving blood on a regular basis at Medic for years, all for different reasons.
"My dad was in a car accident before I was born. Without a blood transfusion he would have died," said donor Apryl Campbell-Gillars.
When they got the opportunity to meet someone who got their specific blood, they jumped at the chance.
"I'm getting choked up now thinking about it. It's neat to connect with the end user, as it were," said donor Brian Bliss.
"It's the first time I've ever met a recipient. It's nothing to give blood products compared to what you're going through," said donor Jim DeTar.
Roll Up Your Sleeve Week continues Thursday and Friday. You can donate blood either at Medic's offices or one of several mobile donation sites. Donors also get a T-shirt, Smokies baseball tickets and a coupon for a free Chick-Fil-A sandwich.
Katelyn Norman thanks one of the donors who have been helping to keep her alive.
