blood donors

The regional blood bank is calling on those of African descent to donate as soon as they can to save the life of a woman with sickle cell disease in need of a rare blood type combination.

The need is "pretty bad" in Northeast Florida," but not yet at a critical level statewide, according to a manager with LifeSouth’s Community Blood Center.

Blood centers in the U.S. are scrambling to track down hundreds of thousands of former donors turned away because of worries about mad cow disease in Europe more than two decades ago.

Inside the Grifols Biomat USA Plasma Center, people from all over the community come to donate, with their stories, afflictions and motivations with them.