Canadian Blood Services is saying thank-you to students at the University of Windsor.
A blood drive held Tuesday at the university saw over 100 students roll up their sleeves and give the gift of life.
Kelsey Bois is a volunteer with the university's Blood Club and says seeing people donate means a lot to her family.
Her nine-month-old sister passed away in 2014 as a result of liver failure, with her sister needing a number of blood transfusions during her care at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.
"It touches my heart in so many different ways because there's so many people I went to high school with, that I see coming in here. They'll look at me and they'll be like, 'you use to hassle me when we were in high school.' And I'm like, 'I'll do it here too," says Bois. "You just see that we're slowly starting to bring in the younger generation."
University of Windsor Blood Club Volunteer Kelsey Bois, March 26, 2019 (Photo by AM800's Rob Hindi)
She says seeing how many blood transfusions and blood products her sister needed was a wake-up call for her family.
"It was almost like a smack in the face to wake-up and be like, this is an issue," says Bois. "There were so many times where they didn't know if they would have the blood products for her, that there wasn't any on hard and that is so scary situation, where you could lose a family member because someone chose not to donate."
Canadian Blood Services partnered with NextGen Lifeline to host the donor clinic at the university.
NextGen Lifeline helps recruit the next generation of blood donors.