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It’s a way to save a life during your lunch-break

Efforts are being made to replenish blood stocks after the recent wildfires impacted supplies
Caroline Feraday
/
KCLU
Efforts are being made to replenish blood stocks after the recent wildfires impacted supplies

Blood donors are being encouraged to come forward to replenish supplies depleted after the recent wildfires.

It might not be obvious why blood supplies were impacted by the fires – but – says Sherrie DeVillers from Vitalant – as well as cancelled blood drives, people were unable to attend appointments and that impacted supply.

"With the fires, it kind of put us in a low spot where we're trying to just make sure that we keep at a certain level to keep our blood supply adequate," she said.

DeVillers says donating blood is a quick and easy way to help others in the community.

"We serve 25 hospitals along the Central Coast and in Southern California, and every day we need at least 250 donors to meet those needs of the patients, on average. And we have to have it ready and there and tested and available for them when it's needed," she said.

There are upcoming blood drives in Thousand Oaks on Monday, February 3 at Los Robles Health System, as well as Palm Garden Hotel on Tuesday, February 4, Thousand Oaks Police Department on Wednesday, February 5 and on Monday, February 17 at Fogo de Chao. Details of how and where to donate blood on their website.

Caroline joined KCLU in October 2020. She won LA Press Club's Audio Journalist of the Year Award in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

Since joining the station she's won 10 Golden Mike Awards, 6 Los Angeles Press Club Awards, 4 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards and a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence in Writing.

She started her broadcasting career in the UK, in both radio and television for BBC News, 95.8 Capital FM and Sky News and was awarded the Prince Philip Medal for her services to radio and journalism in 2007.

She has lived in California for eleven years and is both an American and British citizen - and a very proud mom to her daughter, Elsie.