Image Credit: Canadian Blood Services

By Adam Donnelly

CANADIAN BLOOD SERVICES

Kamloops Broncos head coach out for blood… donors

Jan 29, 2021 | 5:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — When former WolfPack soccer player turned nurse Kelsey Thorkelsson fell ill last September, she and her partner, Kamloops Broncos head coach Braden Vankoughnett thought there was more to it. A blood test at the RIH emergency room proved that suspicion right.

“The doctor at Kamloops [ER] said I either had aplastic anemia or leukemia,” Thorkelsson explains. “I didn’t know what aplastic anemia was. I hear leukemia and thought, ‘Okay, this is serious.’”

It turned out to be aplastic anemia, a condition that occurs when the body stops producing enough new blood cells. Thorkelsson moved to Vancouver for treatment, leaving Vankoughnett here in Kamloops amid the pandemic, with no football to coach.

“It was a long couple months, just seeing what was going on,” Vankoughnett says. “I was getting a little bit restless because there was nothing going on in the fall or winter months.”

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Braden turned that energy into the pursuit of a positive cause. He, and a bunch of the athletes he coaches, went to a blood donation clinic in Kamloops — many of them for the first time.

“I felt that it was something I could grow bigger because I knew it wasn’t just me. There were a lot of guys on my football team — 15, for example — who were first-time donors,” Vankoughnett says. “I’m just trying to raise awareness and let everyone make that choice for themselves.”

After that first donation, Vankoughnett reached out to Canadian Blood Services to see what else he could do to help. That work has included getting the Broncos players, as well as the other clubs in the BC Football Conference involved in raising awareness of the need for blood and stem cell donors.

“The work that Braden has decided to do, to really extended it to his circle of influence with the BCFC — it’s so important,” Gayle Voyer, acting associate director with Canadian Blood Services, explains. “Whether you’re connected to Braden and Kelsey or [their story] just hits home for you, it’s just that personal connection to just knowing that your blood or blood products are going to someone in need.”

The pair are living in Vancouver, where Kelsey is getting regular treatments for her aplastic anemia. For Braden, he wants to make sure people know the impact those blood donations have, and the difference that can make in the lives of those on the receiving end.

“We have this potential to help people,” he says. “Do a little bit of research and make that informed decision yourself, because it could be a game changer and life changer for somebody.”