By Bethany Bray Patterson, American Red Cross Regional Communications Director

Like the familiar potato chip commercial tagline, Brenda Payne says that once you start giving blood, “you can’t stop.”

The rewarding feeling of helping save lives keeps her coming back, she says. Payne, of Catonsville, Maryland, started donating whole blood last year and has expanded to give platelets, the clotting component that is essential in the treatment of cancer.

Payne knows firsthand how important each blood donation is. She received a lifesaving blood transfusion four years ago after she was hit by a car while walking in her neighborhood.

Payne was given a blood transfusion while at a trauma center, and spent two weeks in the hospital recovering from serious injuries she sustained in the accident.

Someone in the United States – like Brenda – needs a blood transfusion every two seconds, and volunteer blood donors are the only source of blood and platelets for those in need. The American Red Cross provides roughly 40% of the nation’s blood supply and needs to collect about 12,500 blood donations every day to meet the needs of patients at about 2,500 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country.

Now fully recovered, Payne says she donates whole blood and platelets to “pay it forward.” She also encourages her friends to donate and invites them to come with her to the Red Cross donation center in Columbia, Maryland.

“I plan to donate as often as possible, whenever I am able to donate,” says Payne. “Once it’s over the good feeling that you have outweighs any nerves you may have had [about donating] … It only takes a few minutes to give blood, but the good feeling, knowing that you just helped save at least one life with one simple action, lasts quite a while.”

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The need for blood is constant. Blood donations to the Red Cross help ensure new moms, premature babies, cancer patients and accident victims have access to safe, lifesaving blood.

Every day, volunteer blood and platelet donors are needed across the country to help save lives. When you roll up a sleeve to donate, you help change a life.

Schedule an appointment to donate today by visiting RedCrossBlood.org.