Logan Conley is 13 years old and throughout his young life he has already undergone more than 100 chemotherapy treatments to fight a brain tumor that cost him most of his sight. To be able to receive that treatment, he had to receive numerous blood transfusions, and that led to a family effort to make sure kids like Logan get the blood they need to survive and thrive.

Amy Conley is Logan’s mom. She and her daughter Ava, who is a senior in high school, took over running the American Red Cross Peter Powerhouse Foundation blood drives, held 10 months out of the year, at the Towamencin Mennonite Church in Kulpsville, Pennsylvania.

The Peter Powerhouse Foundation is a non-profit organization that helps improve the lives of kids fighting cancer by providing money to organizations that research or treat the disease.

Ava became the new Blood Program Leader earlier this year, and despite a busy schedule that includes school and sports, she spends hours each month making sure the blood drives are a success.

“It makes me so happy to know that drives make an impact on so many lives. I feel so blessed to live in such a tight knit community that understands the importance of blood donations and continues to support us,” Ava said.

In a Facebook post describing Logan’s brain tumor years ago, Amy wrote, “Our world turned upside down the week after Christmas 2015.” Logan’s tumor, diagnosed at age 4, was discovered by an MRI that resulted in surgery in January 2016.

“The slow growing optic glioma was found in Logan’s optic nerve, which doctors believe then grew into the optic pathway, resulting in vision loss, which Logan will deal with for a lifetime,” Amy said.

After years of treatment, his tumor is now stable, and he has scans every six months to make sure things haven’t changed.

Getting blood transfusions helped Logan, but getting blood depends on donors. Every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood, and the Red Cross provides about 40% of America’s supply.

“Peter Powerhouse ran these incredible blood drives through the Red Cross for kids like Logan.” Amy said, “Logan and other cancer patients need that blood to receive their lifesaving treatment to fight their tumors, and it also made him feel so much better.”

Amy said she could almost tell when Logan’s cell counts were low because he would look pale and be lethargic. “You just don’t feel good. The difference that it made once he would get that blood transfusion was remarkable.” After a transfusion, Logan’s demeanor would change and the counts would be high enough to allow him to undergo chemo.

Ava was 8 years old when she first witnessed what her brother had to go through. Her mom said that was hard on her when she was young and didn’t really understand what was happening. But as Ava got older, Amy said Ava saw “what a difference the blood made for Logan and became very interested.”

Ava finds helping people like her brother by recruiting and encouraging others to donate blood “rewarding.”

She said, “As someone who knows what it’s like to be impacted by childhood cancer, to know that the blood I’m raising is literally saving lives, making someone who is going through chemotherapy feel better, or allowing them to get treatment by raising their blood counts – that’s all I need to continue to host drives.”

Today, Logan loves playing flag football, basketball and riding his bike around the neighborhood. Because he lost most of his sight at such a young age, he has developed skills and techniques that help him scan his environment with his remaining vision.

“He does really well,” Amy said. Logan participates in “all the normal things that a 13-year-old would want to do.”

Ava is making plans to go to college and plans to keep convincing more people to donate blood.

“I’m happy that for each drive I did recruit a few new donors, but I would like to continue to increase that number.”

The next Peter Powerhouse Foundation blood drive will be held at the Towamencin Mennonite Church on December 26th from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The address is 1980 Sumneytown Pike in Kulpsville, Pennsylvania. If you can’t get out to donate then, a drive is scheduled for January 15th at the same location from 2-7 p.m. Drives are hosted monthly except for April and June. Visit RedCrossBlood.org and enter sponsor code Peter Powerhouse to schedule an appointment at an upcoming blood drive.

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- Written by Jenny Farley