Like many people who receive blood transfusions, Brystol Bates never thought she would need one.

What makes her story unique is that when she first needed blood, she hadn’t thought about anything.

Period.

Born 13 weeks premature, the Fair Grove, Missouri, native needed two lifesaving blood transfusions within the first six weeks of her life. She received the first of them just one day after she was born.

“I literally hadn’t even had a thought yet,” Brystol said. “It’s all I’ve ever known.”

Now a 21-year-old junior at the University of Kansas, many of Brystol’s current thoughts focus on making a difference in the lives of other people – just as those two blood donors helped her long ago.

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