By: Abby Walker and Ray Lapine

Whitney Klos frequently visits blood drives in her community and actively promotes blood donation on her social media channels. Though she’s currently unable to donate blood herself, she shows up to Red Cross blood drives to give something a little different: thank-you cards for blood donors, thoughtfully created by her and her now five-year-old twins.

“Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to give blood and save lives,” reads one thank-you card written by Whitney. “I would not be here today without blood donors like you.”

The time spent with her kids to make these cards isn’t a task to check off the to-do list; it’s precious time that Whitney knows she wouldn’t have if it weren’t for the complete strangers who saved her at the beginning of her twins’ lives.

Five years ago, Whitney entered the delivery room knowing she was about to give birth to twins. While she was aware that challenges could arise, it wasn’t until the C-section wrapped up, the babies were declared healthy, and she was able to rest, that the real challenge began.

“When they were tucking me into bed, we realized things were not going as planned,” Whitney said. “We realized then that I was hemorrhaging.”

That realization set off a whirlwind experience for Whitney, who says she didn’t fully understand the scope of the danger she was facing at the time. Hospital staff were running in and out of the room, and she recalls someone mentioning the need to check if there was enough blood on the shelves to give her the transfusion she needed.

“I didn’t fully understand what was going on until someone said ‘we are trying to save your life,’” Whitney said.

Thankfully, the hospital did have enough blood on hand to give Whitney the care she needed, which in the end totaled 25 units of blood.

Those units, Whitney now understands, were all from people who didn’t know her. People who gave her the chance to see her babies grow up.

“People took the time to give blood to someone they’ll never know. A stranger, right? And they will never know how much it changed my life.”

Recalling the selfless act that kept her alive still gets Whitney teary-eyed. The thank-you cards she continues to create and deliver, she says, are just small acts in comparison to the gift those blood donors gave her.

“It’s one of the best gifts that you can give somebody,” she said. “The gift of life.”