Ava Thomas is like most 4-year-olds, always on the move, always dancing, and seemingly always happy.
“I like playing,” Ava said. “It’s cause it’s so fun outside!
But lately, Ava spends much of her time down and out in a hospital bed, undergoing treatment for a rare form of brain cancer.
“The chemotherapy will just deplete her immune system,” Ava’s mother, Kassi Thomas, said. “It drops all her white blood cells and her red blood cells to zero or close to it.”
Unfortunately, Kassi says her battle with brain cancer and her chemotherapy treatment isn’t the only fight her daughter faces.
“Kids like Ava strongly depend on these blood transfusions and platelet transfusions. It goes hand in hand with their treatment,” Kassi said.
Unfortunately, according to the Red Cross, blood is still in short supply nationwide. The organization says there has been a 10% drop in overall blood donations since March 2020 and a 62% drop in college and high school blood drives due to the pandemic.
The Red Cross says additional factors like a surge of COVID-19 cases and an active flu season could still exacerbate the shortage.
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