Valley teen wins car by donating blood

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Donate blood, and win a car? It sounds like a pretty good deal, and it happened to one lucky teenager during the United Blood Services Annual Car Giveaway.

About 45,000 people donated blood this summer. 10 of them were drawn to win a car, but now one car belongs to one lucky teenager.

17-year-old Olivia Hewitt sent many thanks to her dad who has been the one encouraging her to donate blood.

"And she just happened to be the one on the very last day of the drawing that they picked her name, so yeah she is very excited," said Olivia's father.

She turns 18-years-old at the end of the month, so the car has been signed over to her dad for now.

"We're considering giving it to her sister, maybe handing her current car down to her, and letting her have that. So she's pretty excited, we never expected that," said her father.

The United Blood Services says teenagers like Olivia tend to make the biggest impact.

"Teens give more blood in Arizona than any other age group, and it's wonderful to be able to reward Olivia in such a wonderful way," said Sue Thew.

She's no stranger to giving, Olivia has already donated four times. This time around she heard exactly who will benefit from her donation.

"Your blood is on hold for this patient who receives ongoing transfusions, shes a female with sickle cell disease at an east valley hospital, and she's going to get your blood the next time she gets a transfusion," said Thew.

"It's awesome, it makes me motivated to keep giving," said Olivia.

A win-win for everyone.