photo by: LMH Health

LMH Health, 325 Maine St., is pictured in May 2021.

LMH Health’s supplier for blood donations recently reported that the greater Kansas City area it serves continues to experience a chronic blood shortage, but folks in Lawrence will have a pair of opportunities to help in just a few days.

LMH Health is hosting mobile drives for the Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City Thursday and Friday. The Thursday drive will take place at the hospital’s West Campus, 6265 Rock Chalk Drive, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. On Friday, the drive will be hosted at LMH Health’s main campus, 325 Maine St., from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The Community Blood Center provides the vast majority of the blood used by more than 60 area hospitals, including LMH Health. It announced its first blood emergency of 2023 back in March, and the situation hadn’t yet changed as recently as late June. In another news release ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, the Community Blood Center said the same shortage that has persisted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect its reserves of all blood types — especially type O and platelet donations.

Donors can give blood every 56 days, while platelets — the more fragile, short-lived components of blood essential for normal blood clotting — can be given even more frequently, twice per month. However, platelet donations can’t take place at mobile drives since they can take around two hours. Instead, donors interested in giving platelets will need to schedule an appointment at a nearby Community Blood Center neighborhood donation location in Topeka or Olathe.

Folks interested in donating can schedule an appointment for the two LMH Health drives later this week or find a full list of other upcoming mobile drives in the area on the Community Blood Center’s website, savealifenow.org/donate-blood.