Special Blood Drive Celebrates 6-Year-Old Boy Who Beat Cancer

THORNWOOD, NY — Blood donations helped 6-year old Owen Feola beat leukemia. Now he is paying it forward in the most appropriate way possible and he could use your help.

The New York Blood Center (NYBC) will be hosting a blood drive on Friday, October 14, from 1 p.m. – 7 p.m., at the Thornwood Fire Department. This blood drive will be in celebration of Owen Feola, a brave child who beat cancer.

Feola is a thriving, energetic and charismatic 6-year-old who loves to wake surf, snowboard, mountain bike and perfect his flips on the trampoline. At the age of 4, he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, a diagnosis where he needed numerous life-saving blood transfusions in order to win his battle with cancer.

"Owen has received numerous lifesaving blood transfusions throughout his journey," family friend, Josephine DiCostanzo, who is the chair of this very special blood drive, told Patch. "We are forever grateful to all the donors who help children like Owen win their battle with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses."

The NYBC encourages all blood donors to come and celebrate Feola by donating blood in his honor, with the hope of helping other children like him to battle cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.

It only takes one hour to donate, and a single donation can save multiple lives. Hospitals and patients rely upon a steady flow of donors as roughly one in seven hospital admissions require a blood transfusion. Those in need include: cancer patients, accident, burn, or trauma victims, newborn babies and their mothers, transplant recipients, surgery patients, chronically transfused patients suffering from sickle cell disease or thalassemia, and many more.

Extra precautions are being taken to help prevent the person-to-person spread of COVID-19. As always, people are not eligible to donate if they’re experiencing a cold, sore throat, respiratory infection or flu-like symptoms. Additional information on donor eligibility and COVID-19 precautions can be found here.

The Thornwood Fire Department is located at 770 Commerce St. in Thornwood.

To make an appointment at this blood drive, donors can call 1-800-933-2566 or visit the website link. If you are unable to donate blood, you can still support NYBC’s mission by texting ‘NYBC’ to ‘20222’ to donate $25.