Valley Mills mother encourages others to donate blood to help kids with cancer

VALLEY MILLS, Texas (KWTX) – Three-year-old Elenor Gomez from Valley Mills has been battling leukemia for a majority of her life. Now her mother, Jessica Harris, is advocating for more people to donate blood to help the girl and other kids with cancer.

Harris said her daughter’s diagnosis couldn’t have come at a worse time.

”I was crushed because I wasn’t here,” Harris said. “I had left and was out of state because my mom’s mom had passed away.”

Gomez was just 14 months old when her parents noticed she started bruising easier and decided to take her in to get some blood tests.

”She would run across our floor and we noticed that she was bruising a lot more than what she used to,” Harris said.

Gomez now attends regular appointments at McLane Children’s Hospital in Temple and Children’s Medical Center in Dallas. Once a week she receives chemotherapy and once every week or two she receives blood transfusions.

”I got an email stating that the Type O blood type is running low in the summer,” Harris said.

It’s that email that gave Harris the idea to hold a blood drive in honor of her daughter.

”I have a couple of friends that live relatively close to us and they’re going through something similar,” Harris said. “I had this idea to put a blood drive together to help not just Elenor, but all of us.”

Harris said Gomez relies on these blood donations. She said chemotherapy drops her daughter’s blood numbers and the donations help replenish that.

”If there weren’t any blood donations at all there could be a chance of her not making it,” Harris said.

Anyone with O positive blood can go to any Carter BloodCare location and give staff the sponsor number S110474 to give directly to Gomez.

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