Five members of Team Fleetwood donate blood

On Wednesday, September 18^th, The Fleetwood Family AKA Team Fleetwood walked into the ConnectLife Southgate Neighborhood Blood Donation Center ready to roll up their sleeves and save lives.

The Fleetwood family has a long history donating blood and are also advocates for organ, eye, and tissue donation. It's personal for them. Scott Fleetwood received a double lung transplant on August 30, 2017 at UPMC in Pittsburgh due to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and limited cutaneous scleroderma.

Scott and his family, Debbie and Emily Fleetwood, Scott’s wife and daughter, moved to Pittsburgh for 6 months after Scott’s transplant. Now they are back in Buffalo, and decided to do a group blood donation with ConnectLife.

Team Fleetwood consisted of Emily and Debbie Fleetwood, Mark Fleetwood, Karen Farley (Mark and Scott’s Aunt), and Emily’s boyfriend, Zachary Sangelo. Emily and Debbie are responsible with putting together this awesome team of donors!

Debbie donated whole blood because her blood type is AB- and the need is always high for AB-. Emily and Mark donated platelets as they are both A+. Zach donated double red cells and Karen donated whole blood.

“We have our next donation set up for December 4th at Southgate Plaza. We all love it there. They take such good care of us and have gotten to know our story. Donating blood is something we can do that is so small but makes such a huge difference in someone's life. Giving life is what it is all about,” says Debbie.