A blood donor clinic's being held in Portage la Prairie on Thursday between 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. at Good Shepherd Church in honour of Alex Wishart.

Alex was diagnosed with leukemia and describes his recovery.

"I'm doing great, way better than I was two years ago."

His mother Cheryl explains how blood donors saved Alex's life.

"When Alex was first diagnosed with leukemia donations of blood from various people basically saved his life. It's something that we can all do to help each other out. Like Alex says, it gives back to the community. It also has a big global effect. There's so many people that need blood it's ridiculous."

She adds Blood Services contacted them.

"Somebody called and they got Alex's name from Cancer Care Services here, which is a great service in our area. They phoned and just asked if Alex would be interested in showing his story for their newsletter. So, we wrote it up and sent it in. I think they forwarded it onto their media people. So, then they asked if we would be interested in having this clinic held in honour of Alex."

Canadian Blood Services Territory Manager Darrin Desmedt explains Alex was diagnosed with leukemia in May of 2005. He needed 30 units of blood, 50 units of platelets and seven units of plasma. That equates to about 100 donors who provided blood.

Alex will be at the clinic tomorrow and hopes to see everyone come and donate on his behalf. He notes those who receive blood donations realize the true need for blood, and how important it is to get new donors into the system, resulting in their desire to create more awareness. With Alex at such a young age, Desmedt notes it's incredible, seeing as people usually think of elderly people contracting cancer and need to know many children suffer as well. Alex is not quite through all of his treatments yet, and sees the need to give back to Portage after he was supported by the city during his treatments.

Desmedt says 170,000 additional donors are needed every year, seeing as 40% of donors stop donating for twelve months for various reasons. Your blood is needed. 50 open appointments are still available.

Good Shepherd Parish is located at 1125 Saskatchewan Avenue East, and is holding the clinic in the main hall. If you haven't donated before and wish to support Alex, you can go to Blood.ca and book an appointment. There's also a Give Blood App you can download for your mobile device. Any questions can be presented to 1-888-2Donate (1-888-236-6283).

"GiveBlood" App for Apple devices click here.

"GiveBlood" App for Android devices click here.