Kentucky Blood Center

With all that Lucas Cannon has been through following a horrific farming accident when he was just a teenager – given just a 1-2% chance of survival and losing the entirety of his right leg – it’s a refreshing education in humility to hear him describe the responsibility he believes he owes to replenish the blood supply after using more than 150 units to preserve his life.

“That’s an incredible amount,” Lucas said. “Using that many units in that short span, it has to take a toll on the blood center.”

Lucas pointed to routine surgeries, cancer patients, organ transplants and other traumas that require blood on an everyday basis. The need for blood is constant, and it’s not lost on Lucas nearly 15 years removed from the life-changing trauma.

When, in 2009, Lucas accidentally knocked the family tractor into gear, throwing him to the ground and ultimately underneath the eight-ton four-wheeler – shattering half his pelvis and his right leg – it altered Lucas’ life, but it didn’t stop him. 

“If it wasn’t for the selfless act of donating blood, I wouldn’t be here,” Lucas said. “I used so much of it, I don’t have my original blood in my body. I’m made up of however many people donated. It’s not mine anymore. It’s these other people who were kind enough to take a few minutes to save my life.”

At 30 years old, Lucas is thriving. He graduated high school less than two years after the accident, went off to college at Northern Kentucky University, competed all over the country for six years in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association, and is now working at the nationally renowned Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

“As weird as it sounds, I don’t think I would change anything,” Lucas said. “I think I’m a much better person going through what I went through. I am as successful as I thought I would be at 16 years old. Nothing’s held me back.”

Donations from people like you not only save Lucas' life, it gives them an opportunity to pursue their dreams.