ABOVE: Fairmont Special Education Teacher Elizabeth Lowry shares a silly moment with her daughter Makenzie Lowry during Elizabeth’s final chemotherapy session. Elizabeth underwent over 120 blood and 200 platelet transfusions while battling acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and after entering remission, has become a coordinator for school Red Cross blood drives. Submitted photo.

FAIRMONT – After receiving blood that helped save her life, Fairmont Special Education Teacher Elizabeth Lowry is taking on a crucial role to ensure others can be assisted as well.

Lowry has been involved in Red Cross work since her teens.

“My mom worked at a nursing home,” she said. “She had donated blood, platelets, white blood cells and all kinds of stuff like that, ever since I was younger. Getting involved with that felt like it was what you needed to do. In college, I still donated plasma, red blood cells, white blood cells periodically, if there was different blood drives on campus.”

Donating blood was still a regular part of her life when she fell ill in April of 2021. At first, she believed it was food poisoning, but after it lingered, she was tested and diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Lowry was determined to face it head-on.

“I wasn’t shocked like, ‘Oh my god, life’s gonna end,'” she said. It was ‘Alright, let’s go. What are we gonna do? How are we gonna attack it? When do we start chemo? I’ve got things to do.’ That’s one thing I told the doctors. I was like, ‘All right, I’ve got my daughter’s trip to DC in June, and I’m going.’ They looked at me like, ‘I don’t think you understand. I don’t think you’re going.’ I’m like, ‘Oh no. I don’t think you understand. I’m going.'”

This attitude is something Lowry said helped her while she received her chemotherapy.

“I didn’t focus on the negatives of losing my hair, fighting cancer,” she said. “I’ve got to do all this, keeping my family and my kids. It gave me that purpose to keep fighting and moving forward.”

Over eight months of treatment, Lowry received over 120 blood and 200 platelet transfusions, as the chemotherapy wiped out cancer and blood cells alike.

Now in remission, Lowry said the experiences changed her perspective on life.

“I don’t worry so much about other people’s perspectives anymore,” she said. “Life is too short to worry. Knowing at any day, you can have a different diagnosis or something could happen. Life, your direction changes. I’ve really come to appreciate and live in the moment more now than I used to.”

On top of this, Lowry said it changed her perspective on blood donation.

“I’m bummed because I had blood cancer, that I can’t donate anymore,” she said. “I know it sustained me for so long, and finding different ways to be able to be active, to help promote blood donation after all of that, encouraged me. Even while I was going through chemo, I reached out to family members and said, ‘Hey, I know you guys don’t normally do this, but I think there’s a blood drive near you, you need to go donate.'”

Building on this, Lowry has become a coordinator for blood drives at Fairmont Schools. In addition to her journey, she said she was inspired by the previous coordinator.

“Rex Hernes was the original advisor here,” Lowry said. “His classroom was across from mine. Anytime he’d get ready to put up stuff for blood donation, I’d always grab a flyer and put it in my room. I’d talk about it, hand out things, encourage the kids in my classes to look into it. When he was getting ready to retire, I was like, ‘Who’s taking over?’ He’s like, ‘Well, nobody.’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I’d love to,’ so I was able to step into his shoes.”

By stepping up and becoming a facilitator for blood drives, Lowry said it feels like a full-circle moment.

“Even though I can’t donate, I’m still able to help,” she said. “I’m able to keep encouraging and promoting so everybody who donates can save someone else’s life. Being able to share my experience of going from being a donor to having to need it to now supporting our donors, it feels good to be able to continue to help.”

Minnesota and Dakotas Red Cross Regional Communications Manager Sue Thesenga said having people like Lowry assisting the Red Cross means everything.

“It really humanizes the whole experience,” she said. “Without blood products, she might not be here to be a teacher, mother, wife, and that really hits home. People in the community know her and recognize the battle she’s been through. What they might not know is she needed all these blood products, and if it weren’t for those blood donors, she might not be here to tell that story. It inspires other people.”

The next blood drives are 12:30-6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 10 and 12-6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 11 at the Best Western in Fairmont.

For more information and to register, visit redcrossblood.org/give.html/find-drive and enter the ZIP Code 56031.