My sister was born in 1965 and she had a hole in her heart, a VSD, which is treatable with surgery. But back in 1965 it was a very risky surgery and my sister had to get big enough to have the surgery. In 1969, she had her surgery and she had to have a lot of blood during the surgery. She was one of two surgeries done that day but unfortunately, she was the only one to survive. I wanted to pay back the people that gave the blood that saved my sister and have been giving blood since I was 18-years-old. Well, it has been 30 years and I am still giving blood! My sister is a 44-year-old mom of two and I am so glad that someone gave blood in 1969.