Raiderettes Marcy, Shaniah, Diana, Sarah, Heather, Bess, Nicole, Monica, Mallorie, and Lytisha pose for a photo with a young fan.
Recently, Raiderette Mallorie, a second-year veteran with Football's Fabulous Females, hosted a Replacement Blood Drive with the help of Keller Williams and Team Temby Properties in Brentwood, Calif. The event was a huge success as 119 people from the local community donated blood. "At our event, we had 119 donors, which was a huge success and turnout for the event," said Mallorie. "I believe 94 units of blood. Each person donates a pint of blood, and within that pint, they're able to save two lives."
The day before the Raiders 2011 Week 4 game in Oakland, Mallorie was taken to the hospital. "On October 1, 2011, Mallorie was rushed to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with massive arterial gastrointestinal hemorrhaging," explained the event flyer. "The doctors were able to cauterize the artery to stop the bleeding, but not before Mallorie lost six units of blood. She remained in the ICU for five more days where she required eight additional units of blood."
The blood Mallorie received saved her life and the blood drive was her way of paying it forward. "After realizing how truly sick I was, I am so thankful for not only God and the amazing doctors that saved my life, but for the blood that was available for me," said Mallorie. "Until something this horrible happens to someone, it is easy to misjudge the importance of donating blood. The need for blood is highly underestimated."
According to the Red Cross, someone in the United States needs blood every two seconds. By hosting the blood drive, Mallorie, her family, coworkers, and friends, hope to help in the effort to save others' lives the way Mallorie's was saved. "We just did the blood drive to be able to donate back to the blood bank and to raise awareness to how important it is to donate blood and to be able to save a lot of lives," explained Mallorie.
Nine of Football's Fabulous Females attended the event to support their Raiderette sister and the members of the community who were donating blood. "It meant a lot to have so many of the girls there," said Mallorie. "There were 10 of us there; there was a lot of support. There was a lot of emotional support when everything happened to me, not just throughout the Raiderettes, but throughout the whole entire organization. Everyone was very supportive. At the actual event, having so many of the Raiderettes there, it was very cool because we got to go in the room where they were actually donating blood and interact with people."
Mallorie was excited by the turnout and the community's support and looks forward to making the blood drive an annual event. "It meant a lot to have everyone's support, people that I knew, people that I didn't know, and get to meet a lot of new, different people from my community and share my story and the importance of donating blood," said Mallorie.
