Photograph by George Sakkestad
Jane Patrick, R.N., draws blood from Deborah Best during a March 19 blood drive at St. Mary's Church.
By Bob Aldrich
When it comes to donations to worthy causes, Deborah Best must be ranked among the more generous.
While others may give only money, Best gives her blood.
In fact, in the past 10 years, she has donated nearly 10 gallons of her blood to the Red Cross. At St. Mary's Church on March 19, Best, of San Jose, made her 80th offering in a decade as a Red Cross blood donor.
The occasion was marked with an appropriate ceremony, and Best was presented with a plaque.
"To give this regularly is most unusual," said Frank Barnes, Red Cross blood donor consultant.
Current accumulation of stored blood for emergency uses is low, said Red Cross public relations director Sherry Lee. "We are 100 units below our need," Lee said.
How did Best come to be willing to donate her blood so regularly?
"Back in 1983, when I was living in Sunnyvale," she said, "I read in a newspaper article about a little girl who had been injured in an auto accident. The article said blood was needed, so I went and made a donation.
"From then on, I guess it just got to be a habit."
Most of her Red Cross blood donations in have been given in Los Gatos or at the former Red Cross office in Monte Sereno.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, April 10, 1996.
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