It takes roughly about 60 minutes for you to save a life. Seriously about an hour or less.

And yes, we're talking about giving the gift of life and donating blood.

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Now wait before you freak out and start with the questions, let us paint a scenario for you. What happens if you or a loved one has an accident. They're rushed to the hospital. Every minute and second matters. They get to the hospital, they make it to the ER. And there's a blood shortage. Either there's very little or none at all. While that scenario sounds a little far fetched it has and does happen all the time.

Versiti, a healthcare organization that supplies blood in Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan is reporting a shortage in blood supply and convalescent plasma as well (a treatment for severely ill COVID-19 patients made from the blood of those who recovered). (abc news)

Donations are down. Way down. Covid has a lot to do with it. Folks are afraid to donate. Some people actually believe they can catch Covid by donating blood and that's simply not true.

Your blood donations are needed now more than ever. Especially if you are TYPE O.

The Red Cross is continuing to urge healthy individuals, especially those with type O blood, to give blood to ensure hospitals can meet patient needs. You can schedule a donation appointment by downloading the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org, or calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or enabling the Blood Donor Skill on any Alexa Echo device. (WILX)

Call, visit the website, download the app, or ENABLE THE SKILL & SET YOUR APPOINTMENT USING ALEXA.

And just for donating, you could win one of five $1000 e-gift cards. Find out more about that and a list of local donation opportunities thanks to our friends at WILX WHEN YOU CLICK HERE. 

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

Gallery Credit: Hannah Lang

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