by Frederic Klein

For years, Nora Parry has been the kind of person who sees a need and looks for a way to help.

As a member of the Greenwich Lions Club, she spends her time supporting projects that strengthen the community. So, when she realized the club had not hosted a blood drive in a while, she decided it was time to change that.

"So, our club hasn't done one in decades," Nora said. "And then I was like, wait a second, what is going on? We gotta get it done."

The need for blood is constant, but helping organize a blood drive was more than just a conceptual understanding of why it matters.

More than two decades earlier, her son Robert began life facing impossible odds.

During her pregnancy, Nora developed severe preeclampsia. Robert was born extremely premature, weighing less than a pound. He spent the first four months of his life in the neonatal intensive care unit at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, where doctors worked around the clock to keep him alive.

"I had a very difficult pregnancy to begin with,” said Nora. “He spent four months in the NICU, and he went through several blood transfusions. He’s a miracle baby."

The experience changed Nora's life.

Complications from the pregnancy left her critically ill as well. After giving birth, she fell into a partial coma and remained unconscious for two days. When she awoke, she was trying to understand both her own condition and the reality that her newborn son was fighting for his life.

"I thought it was the biggest nightmare dream that I was into," said Nora. “I never thought that I was going to go through that.”

For months, Robert remained in intensive care. There were surgeries, setbacks and long stretches of uncertainty. When he was finally healthy enough to leave the hospital, Nora discovered that being home brought a different kind of fear.

"The most terrified," she said, remembering the day she could finally bring him home. "Being four months in the hospital with my son, seeing so many doctors going in and out, going home was the most scary feeling ever."

The years that followed included additional health struggles, including a severe case of RSV that nearly claimed Robert's life. But Robert kept moving forward.

Today, he is a rising college junior at Weber State University, studying automotive technology. He loves anything that has an engine, and is particularly passionate about car racing, and has raced go-karts competitively since he was a teenager.

"He is a very happy boy. He is healthy now," Nora said.

Looking back on everything her family endured, she still shakes her head in amazement.

"Because I always say miracles happen," she said. "He's a true statement of what a miracle is."

That perspective is what motivates Nora's support for blood donation today.

The transfusions Robert received during his first months of life are never far from her mind. When she helps bring a Red Cross blood drive to her community, she knows there are families sitting in hospitals facing uncertainties similar to those she once faced.

And at the blood drive hosted by the Greenwich Lions Club, Nora experienced a moment she never could have imagined during those difficult days in the NICU.

"The greatest memory of that day was that my son donated for the very first time."

Nearly 21 years after receiving blood transfusions that helped sustain him through his earliest days, Robert was now rolling up a sleeve to help someone else.

For Nora, it was more than a proud mother's moment. It was a reminder of just how far her son had come.

Roll up a sleeve to help save lives. Eligible individuals are encouraged to schedule a blood or platelet donation appointment by using the Red Cross Blood Donor app, visiting RedCrossBlood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).