The Bell family is gearing up for two big anniversary celebrations.
It has been five years since Lizzie, 24, received her life-saving bone-marrow transplant, and soon the family will celebrate a decade in the home built for them by the TV show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” after Lizzie was honored as an American Red Cross Hero for her ambassadorship with blood donations.
In lieu of throwing a party, the Bells are staging a blood drive.
“July 25 was Lizzie’s transplant anniversary and she is 100 percent engrafted,” said Lizzie’s mom, Kathy Flores Bell. “Last year her blood level hemoglobin was 11.6, which means she began making her own red blood cells. This year her hemoglobin is 14.1. We have never heard those kinds of numbers, so it is a very exciting time.”
She and Lizzie’s dad, Mike Bell, are co-founders of Team Lizzie Bell, an affiliate of the nonprofit John P. Bell Foundation. Team Lizzie Bell promotes community health awareness and education about blood and bone-marrow donation and research, and focuses on building family strength by supporting those with medically fragile children.
“Our niche is unique situations and the special-needs populations,” Flores Bell said. “People know us because of blood drives and toy donations for local children receiving medical treatment through Lizzie’s Loot. However, we also provide scholarships for child life specialists, pediatric social workers and others and we serve as a resource to connect with hospitals and schools to make sure that families have access to different services and funds needed for medical-related expenses.”
The program was inspired by Lizzie, who was born with Diamond-Blackfan anemia, a rare genetic disorder in which bone marrow produces insufficient red blood cells. For 19 years, Lizzie required blood transfusions every few weeks until she finally matched with a donor for a bone-marrow transplant.
Throughout the journey, the family has been dedicated to promoting both bone-marrow drives — join.bethematch.org/give — and blood drives. They are particularly invested in targeting first-time blood donors and educating the public about the importance of donating blood on an ongoing basis.
“The need for blood is constant: Someone in the U.S. needs blood every two seconds,” said Samantha Bivens, local recruitment department account manager at the American Red Cross Biomedical Services Arizona Region. “Often in Arizona, especially in the summer months, we experience an emergency shortage; we are in one right now. There is a national appeal for donors of all types to roll up their sleeves as we are at a 15,000-pint deficit,”
Bivens said one pint of donated blood can save up to three lives and that blood is needed not only for those fighting cancers, blood diseases and other illnesses, but also during man-made and natural disasters and accidents.
“One bad car accident can generate the need for 120 pints of blood, so if you think in terms of Tucson and how many car accidents we have every day, we need to collect 150 pints a day just to break even with our hospital needs,” Bivens said.
Bivens also wants the public to know that all of the blood collected in Arizona stays in Arizona until obligations to local hospitals are met.
“When you donate blood, you may be saving the life of your neighbor, family member, a loved one, someone you know or a child you have never met. It is pretty powerful stuff,” Bivens said.
The Bell family recognizes that power: They view the annual blood drive in their home — which seeks to collect at least 30 pints of blood — as a thank you to the many volunteers who support the nonprofit year-round as well as an opportunity for the public to meet with families who have received support.
“We have invited patients and their families who have been recipients of blood or financial grants that have helped them receive medical support across the country. They receive the bulk of their care in Tucson, but sometimes require the expertise of specialists in other cities, so we help to pay for travel and other expenses to make that possible,” Flores Bell said.
Flores Bell, who serves as a mentor in the UA Pre-Medicine program, is also expecting a showing from students.
“We have a chance here to express these families’ needs to young, aspiring physicians. We want these students to participate and become invested in health-care events here in Southern Arizona so they come back here to practice medicine,” she said.
Team Lizzie Bell has also partnered with the UA College of Education in its efforts to improve the quality of care for medically-fragile youth and their families. The nonprofit established the Lizzie Bell Hospital School Endowment in support of the Hospital School Program.
Last year, Lizzie’s Loot fund gifted more than $48,000 to the program.
“People are in a war to save their child’s life and they still have to think about the child’s education. The Hospital School Program can develop individualized education programs and offers resources and research to help them. ... It is all part of creating an exceptional health-care destination for children and their families in Tucson. Amazing things happen here,” Flores Bell said.
