AMESBURY – Cider Hill Farm is preparing to host a number of blood drives in the coming months, inspired by the story of their own program director, Valerie Rosenberg.
At age 26, Rosenberg was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic syndromes or MDS which is “a group of cancers that keep your blood stem cells from maturing into healthy blood cells,” the Cleveland Clinic said.
“I was diagnosed when I was 26, and really I had basically a 0% chance of living without a transplant, just because it was so end-stage where the bone marrow calcified. So, in that way it’s considered a pre-leukemia, but it really acts very similarly,” she said.
Fortunately, Rosenberg’s brother was a perfect match and she was able to undergo a bone marrow transplant 90 days after her diagnosis.
However, Rosenberg said not everyone with her diagnosis fares as well.
“Not all people are so lucky. So, there is usually a long wait period for people to find a match, and that’s actually where the blood comes in. So, people are kind of kept alive through these transfusions from these amazing donors until they find a match,”
Rosenberg said being reliant on donor blood prior to and during the transplant exposed her to the impact that donated blood has.
“So, the idea of having all this blood supply, it like blew my brain that people did that,” she said.
Rosenberg is now nearing the 20 year anniversary of her transplant, and had been brainstorming ways to give back.
“I thought about doing blood drives for so long, about donor drives, and how to be active in it. But, it also felt like as an individual, sort of hard to know what to do specifically other than spread the word through my own smaller network,” she said.
So, she turned to Jenny Durocher, co-owner of Cider Hill Farm, with the idea of hosting blood drives on the property.
“We have this really broad range of reach that people are hyper engaged with the farm. And, I thought, maybe I’ll approach Jenny about doing this on the farm and sort of using our strong network,” Rosenberg said.
Durocher welcomed the idea with open arms and said she felt the blood drives are a new way for the farm to give back.
“We are always looking for partnerships that make sense and that work for everybody involved, and this was one that was kind of an easy win for us,” she said.
So, Cider Hill partnered with the American Red Cross and chose four dates to hold blood drives at the farm.
Those interested can register to give blood on July 29, Aug. 4, Aug. 26 and Oct. 23.
All who give blood will have to register and take a health screening before they donate, and afterwards will be given a free cider donut.
Durocher said as she looks forward, she hopes the farm will be able to continue offering blood drives.
“I would definitely hope this stays on our scheduled annual events each year, because to have it be such an impactful experience for one of our very own team members. It’s been exciting to see Val’s face and hear about Val’s stories,” she said.
To learn more about the upcoming blood drives, those interested can visit Cider Hill Farm’s website.