SAVING LIVES IN STYLE

If you weren’t able to make the 2023 Addiction Meetup, one of the cool experiences you missed out on was the opportunity to donate blood in honor of our dear and beautiful friend – and original instigator of the Addiction Meetup 5 years ago – Beki Smit.

On Friday, we had a mobile unit at the Mothership where several of our stylish sisters, DDR family – and family of the family – volunteered to give blood in honor of Beki’s fight against myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a form of blood cancer.

“Unfortunately, most people don’t catch it until they’re critically ill,” Beki explained. “Mine was caught by accident; I went for a physical and my [general practitioner] did labs and they came back weird. Most doctors would say come back in a year, but mine said ‘I’m not doing that, you’re going to the oncologist.’ For most people it takes several years to get diagnosed, but I was diagnosed in a matter of months because I have a fabulous GP. I have very few symptoms and my blood work has been stable for months, since March, and so there’s currently no treatment going on. I’ve been down to MD Anderson, and we have a plan for when things start to crash, but they’re not crashing yet.”

Though it was in her honor, none of this blood benefits Beki directly, but she receives a credit toward her treatment for each unit donated.

“That blood will go into the bank for people that need it right now,” Beki explained. “I won’t see a drop and hopefully I never need a drop! I get a credit in my account, but at some point, that will [go into a pool] for people who can’t afford the treatment to get it; kind of like when you can donate your airline miles to people in the military to fly home, I am able to donate the donation – or the value of it, rather. So yeah, I won’t see a drop of this blood, and I don’t need it – thank GOD, I don’t need it! – not yet, anyway. But it’s an amazing thing that they did.”

So, how’d we do? Well, in that short half-day span, we had 24 donors register and collectively donated 17 whole blood units and 2 units of double red cells! And remarkably, with all that blood flowing, we only had ONE who almost hit the floor (but we’ll never name names!).

Not only did we have a successful blood drive, we also got folks signed up for Be The Match, another organization near and dear to our lovely Kristen Schley, that allows folks under 40 to enter a registry and potentially match to be a bone marrow or stem cell donor for someone in need. [Incidentally, a bone marrow transplant is currently the only known cure for those with active and aggressive MDS.]

Pretty awesome, right? You know, as much fun as we had all week, this activity was definitely a highlight all its own. It’s empowering to look good, but it’s invigorating to do good, and if you do both at once, it’s a whole different high.

“As for DDR, I love it and I love the people like I’ve never loved anything; it’s just a totally different environment where I feel built up and loved and honored, and I attribute it all to them,” she said. “Their way of being is contagious, and I have caught it BIG TIME. Much more so than the cancer.”

We love you, Beki, and we’re forever in your corner!