A blood drive in support of Hopkinsville native Chase Pemberton will be conducted from noon to 6 p.m. Monday, May 5, at First Christian Church, 2601 S. Walnut St.
Pemberton, 23, has been diagnosed with leukemia, his aunt, Leslie Sorrell, told Hoptown Chronicle. He is receiving chemotherapy and gets blood platelets daily as a patient at Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Myelosuppression/Stem Cell Transplant Unit in Nashville.
“He will have a bone marrow transplant in the near future,” Sorrell said in an email. “It’s estimated that he may spend up to seven weeks in the hospital. (He has been there two weeks.)”
All blood types may donate, although there is added need for O negative blood — the universal donor blood that may be safely given to any recipient regardless of their blood type.
Sorrell said her nephew’s medical team notified the family that “there is a critical blood shortage in the area.”
Pemberton graduated from Hopkinsville High School and Western Kentucky University. He moved to Nashville last year for a job with Dell Inc.
The drive will be conducted by Blood Assurance, a nonprofit that serves hospitals in Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina and Kentucky.
A QR code is available for those wanting to schedule a donation time. Information about donating is also available by contacting Suzanne Adkisson, a Blood Assurance representative, at 931-367-3541.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
