Hope through help: Day of Encouragement blood drive set for Sept. 12 in Naperville

It was a painful shared experience that initially connected Naperville native Christy LaFave Grace with fellow mom Rachel Helfrich Tobin of Bolingbrook in 2014.

The two women met online in August of that year through Edward-Elmhurst Health’s chapter of SHARE, a national program for families who have experienced miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal loss.

LaFave Grace and her husband, Joe, were grieving the loss of their firstborn, Nate, who had died two days after birth due to complications from a brain arteriovenous malformation. Tobin had been a member of Edward Hospital’s SHARE group since her and husband Nicholas’s son Andrew was stillborn in 2012.

“We say that no one wants to have reason to be a part of this group, but if you do, you’re so glad it exists,” Tobin said.

For LaFave Grace, Tobin was something of a mentor through loss. “I already looked up to her by the time I met her in person” at Edward-Elmhurst’s annual SHARE Walk to Remember at the Naperville Riverwalk that October, LaFave Grace said.

Over the past nine years, the two have remained in touch — including through overlapping pregnancies in 2016, when their sons Colin and Jack were born two weeks apart.

It didn’t surprise LaFave Grace, then, when Tobin reached out this summer with a message of support after LaFave Grace shared online that her husband — who had been diagnosed in 2011 with IgA nephropathy, a type of chronic kidney disease — would need a kidney transplant.

What was surprising was what followed in the message: Tobin’s mother Julie, too, was in need of a kidney. Julie is currently on the national kidney transplant waiting list at UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin.

Family members and friends of both Joe and Julie are undergoing testing to see if they could be potential living donors. In the meantime, while they wait with their loved ones for hoped-for news of a possible match, LaFave Grace and Tobin are working to spread the word about organ donation and the great need nationwide for organ, blood and tissue donors.

On Tuesday, Sept. 12 — designated as National Day of Encouragement — they’ll share that message at a blood drive at Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, 815 S. Washington St. in Naperville, where LaFave Grace works as communications manager and where Edward-Elmhurst SHARE’s annual Service of Remembrance takes place each December.

Hosted in partnership with Versiti of Illinois, the blood drive will take place indoors in Our Saviour’s Luther Court from 1 to 6 p.m. All eligible donors in the community are invited to participate. Information on the impact of blood donation, becoming a living donor, and how to check to make sure you’re registered as an organ/tissue donor also will be available.

“This is something that we can do not just to support our loved ones, but also hopefully to help patients in similar circumstances, whether a cancer patient needing blood transfusions or someone waiting for a liver donation.”

“No one should go through it alone,” added Tobin. “You never know who has been touched by a similar circumstance, and sharing your story can spark a connection.”

Donors and potential donors often don’t realize how meaningful their gift can be, said LaFave Grace. Versiti notes that each donation of blood can help up to three patients. However, according to Versiti, while around 38% of the population is eligible to donate blood, less than 10% of individuals do.

When it comes to organ donation, too, a donation from a living donor often is the best treatment for a patient, with the donated organ often lasting longer than an organ from a deceased donor, according to the National Kidney Foundation. In addition, the wait for a kidney from a deceased donor can be 6-8 years, and many patients do not have that long to wait.

The National Day of Encouragement timing of the blood drive is deliberate, LaFave Grace noted.

“What could be more encouraging than sharing the gift of life?” she said.

Blood-donation appointments are available from 1 to 6 p.m. Advance registration is encouraged, but walk-ins are welcome.

To register, visit donate.illinois.versiti.org.