By Bethany Bray Patterson, American Red Cross Regional Communications Manager

Every day, more than 100 employees come to work at the Red Cross blood processing facility in Baltimore. And every day, they pass by a photo of their colleague Teresa Tarlton posted on a bulletin board in the lab.

The photo is a poignant, close-to-home reminder that the work they do saves lives.

Tarlton, a 32-year Red Cross employee and manager of the apheresis quality control laboratory, is alive today because of blood that was generously given by donors, processed – just as the Baltimore facility does every day – and distributed to hospitals for patient transfusions.

A three-time cancer survivor, Tarlton has received dozens of blood and platelet transfusions while undergoing treatment, most recently for acute myeloid leukemia (bone marrow cancer).

“I know that without the support of donors and staff at the Red Cross, I would not have survived,” says Tarlton, who returned to work at the Baltimore facility in June. “I am blessed to be here.”

As a longtime Red Cross employee, Tarlton knows all the work that goes into making each blood donation ready for patient transfusions – from the temperature control at the lab to the volunteer drivers who transport blood products to area hospitals. Each time the nurse hung a bag of blood or platelets for a transfusion, Tarlton says she thought about the multistep process it took to get to her.

“It’s quite a miracle,” says Tarlton, a native of Harford County, Maryland who now lives in York, Pennsylvania. “I am so glad those donors came in, and beyond that, the lab staff, volunteer drivers and everyone involved – there’s so many pieces to the puzzle and I can appreciate that. I’ve been in the lab for so long, it’s part of me – I know what’s behind each blood transfusion and I appreciate it.”

Tarlton says her August 2022 leukemia diagnosis “turned my life upside down. I had already beat cancer twice before, but this one [diagnosis] felt different, a little more dire.”

In the months that followed, Tarlton underwent full-body radiation and multiple rounds of chemotherapy. The grueling treatment left her very weak – “exhausted” doesn’t even begin to describe it, she says – but it sent the cancer into remission. This got her to a point where she could accept a bone marrow transplant from her daughter, Chloe, in a cutting-edge procedure at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

She spent 10 weeks in quarantine at Hopkins after the transplant and 10 months, total, on leave from her work at the Red Cross. Throughout the entire process, Tarlton received more than 25 units of blood and platelets.

Blood and platelet transfusions are often an important aid in cancer treatment – so much so that patients fighting cancer use nearly one quarter of the nation’s blood supply — more than patients fighting any other disease.

The American Red Cross estimates that six blood products are needed every minute to help someone going through cancer treatment somewhere in the U.S.

Now fully in remission, Tarlton says she and her daughter, a master’s student at the University of Alabama, are still letting this amazing process “sink in.” Tarlton has a brand-new immune system and bone marrow that is 100% her daughter’s DNA.

She calls her Red Cross coworkers her “other family” – a family that she has become even more close with because they played a part in saving her life.

Tarlton shares her story to encourage those who are a healthy and able to donate blood. You never know when life will throw you a curve ball – as it did for her – and you’ll be the one who needs blood, she says.

“I work with blood every day, I see it go in and come out [of the Red Cross lab], but I was not expecting this,” she says. “You just never know.”

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The need for blood is constant. Blood donations to the Red Cross help ensure new moms, premature babies, cancer patients and accident victims have access to safe, lifesaving blood.

Every day, volunteer blood and platelet donors are needed across the country to help save lives. When you roll up a sleeve to donate, you help change a life.

Schedule an appointment to donate today by visiting RedCrossBlood.org.