NATCHEZ — A local man says he’s “living on about 16 years of borrowed time,” thanks, in part, to blood donations.

Wednesday from 10 a.m.-7 p.m., United Blood Services will be collecting blood in Cathedral Elementary School’s multi-purpose room.

“The big thing we want to tie in is that without volunteer blood donors, we’re not able to supply blood needed for friends and family in the community,” said Katie Swinney, a donor recruitment representative out of Hattiesburg.

Bobby Eidt, a 62-year-old Natchez resident, would agree.

Eidt was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease in the early ’90s.

Cushing’s disease is extremely rare, he said, and it’s caused by a tumor, located either on a person’s pituitary gland or the adrenal gland. The tumor causes the body to release too much cortisol, a stress hormone.

After a person is diagnosed with Cushing’s, he said, doctors estimate that he or she will live for two years.

Eidt said he’s been healthy since his surgery 16 years ago.

But he wouldn’t have made it through his surgery without doctors giving him many units of donated blood, he said.

Still, Eidt said, going through Cushing’s wasn’t easy.

“Your limbs get very weak, your torso swells up and you get, for lack of a better definition, like the Hunchback of Nortre-Dame,” Eidt said. “Your face swells up and it looks hideous. You develop sores on your arms and legs.

“It progresses until it’s diagnosed or until you die.”

Eidt said he first noticed symptoms when he couldn’t physically do what he’d been doing. He was a painter at the time, he said, and he could hardly step up on a workbench or climb a ladder.

“For the longest time, (doctors) just didn’t know what was wrong. I’m not knocking medical science, but they just didn’t have a clue what was going on.”

Right before going into surgery, Eidt said, his cortisol level was more than 1,000. The normal cortisol level is 13-15.

Today, Eidt is completely cured.

One in three people will use donated blood in his or her lifetime and nationwide every year, 4.5 million Americans need donated blood, Swinney said.

Blood shortages are common in the summer, when those who regularly donate take a break for travel, she said. The need for blood also increases in the summer, when more patients schedule surgeries.

To combat the shortage, local Catholic churches — Our Lady of Lourdes, Holy Family, Assumption and St. Mary — along with a number of businesses, came together to sponsor the drive.

United Blood Services is the only blood provider to Natchez Regional Medical Center. It’s also the provider to 67 hospitals throughout Mississippi and West Alabama, Swinney said.

Eidt said he now appreciates how important blood drives really are.

“(Blood drives) mean more to me now,” he said. “I think I have pretty regularly donated as often as allowed — three or four times within the last couple of years.”

Swinney said from start to finish, United Blood Services asks donors for an hour of their time.

Blood Drive Coordinator James Shaidnagle said 115 units of blood are needed to total the three-day supply.

“There’s enough time built in to take more than 115 (units), but that’s the goal we’re shooting for.”

More people are eligible to donate than many people think, Swinney said. Sixty percent of the population is eligible to give, she said, but out of that 60 percent, only four percent will give.

“Our regulations have changed a good bit,” she said. “All blood pressure medicines are accepted, controlled diabetics can give, if someone has a tattoo that was applied in a licensed facility in a state that requires licenses — which Mississippi does — it’s OK to donate as long as its healed,” she said.

If someone got a tattoo in a non-licensed facility, he or he may donate a year after getting the tattoo, Swinney added.

Donors must be at least 16 years old and in good health. If a donor is 16 years old, a signed parental consent form is necessary. Donors must also meet a minimum weight requirement of 110 pounds.

Shaidnagle added that there is no cutoff age for donating blood.

“When you get to be 62 or 65, it doesn’t mean you can’t give blood anymore,” he said. “You still can.”

Those who contribute blood Wednesday will receive a T-shirt. The Adams County Cattleman’s Association will provide all-beef hamburgers, free drinks provided by Peps-cola and door prizes will also be available.

Donors may reserve times by visiting bloodhero.com (sponsor code: stmarynatchez) or by calling Shaidnagle at 601-604-0221.