A dozen people who had never met before gathered at New York Blood Center’s donor center on the Upper East Side on Tuesday morning because they have something in common. They’ve all played a part in saving Stacey Sottile’s life by simply donating blood.

“Everyone was needed for me to be here today,” Sottile said.

Sottile was diagnosed with sickle cell disease when she was only 11 months old. She’s now 51. The Queens-born woman has been in and out of the hospital her entire life and has received hundreds of blood transfusions.

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