BANGOR  – The American Red Cross encourages eligible donors to give blood during National Volunteer Month this April. Eligible donors of all blood types – especially type O – are needed to help ensure blood products are available for patients this spring.

Nearly half of the public knows someone who has been helped by a blood transfusion. For many volunteer blood donors, like Gail Wright, that personal connection serves as inspiration to give.

Wright’s brother was involved in a serious motorcycle accident in 1982 and needed several blood transfusions during his four-month recovery. She lived over 120 miles away at the time. Unable to be near him, she decided she could help by donating blood. Wright has continued to donate and recently completed her 11th gallon of donated blood – 88 lifesaving blood donations.

Volunteer donors are the only source of blood products for those in need of transfusions, and the Red Cross salutes the volunteer blood donors who help fulfill its lifesaving mission. While donors of all blood types are needed, the Red Cross currently has a severe shortage of type O blood donations and urges type O donors to give now.

Make an appointment to help save lives now by downloading the free Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

To celebrate the final season of Game of Thrones, HBO and the American Red Cross have partnered to encourage fans and donors to show their bravery and valor by bleeding #ForTheThrone. Many answered the call to give earlier this year, and much like the show, embarking on its final season, the fight for the living isn’t over.

Those who come to donate by April 30 will be automatically entered for a chance to win a full-size Iron Throne from HBO’s Game of Thrones. Terms and conditions apply and are available at RedCrossBlood.org/HBOGameofThrones. Additionally, all presenting donors April 11-30, 2019, will receive a commemorative Bleed For The Throne poster, while supplies last, and automatically be entered in the above-mentioned sweepstakes.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities locally are as follows: Old Town –  April 19, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Old Town United Methodist Church, 726 Stillwater Avenue; Orono- April 23-24, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, 2 Flagstaff Road.