Blood drive at Lynn City Hall Wednesday

Item Staff ReportLYNN – Lynn District Court will be holding its second-annual blood drive for Children’s Hospital in Boston this Wednesday in the back parking lot of City Hall.This year’s “Give Pints for Half-Pints” is in honor of Ashley Cashell, a 6-year-old Malden girl whose leukemia is now in remission in part from a series of blood transfusions she received at Children’s Hospital. Cashell is the friend of one of the clerk’s granddaughter, said Paul Broderick, a session clerk at the court.The drive will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and donors must be at least 16 with positive identification. In addition, donors cannot be sick, take heavy medication or have had a tattoo done within the past year, Broderick said.Each one-pint donation can help up to four patients at the hospital, Broderick said, and 50 people donated blood last year.Broderick said he will be taking walk-ins, but to schedule an appointment for the drive, visit halfpints.childrenshospital.org. The sponsor code for the drive is LYNN COURT. Appointments can also be made by calling Broderick at 781-710-7010.Once the blood is collected, Broderick said no time is wasted.”During the day they’ll [draw] the blood, then a courier takes (it) right to the hospital to be used,” he said. “It’s amazing.”