KINGSFORD -- Katie Uren is a 25-year-old newlywed from Iron Mountain.  She has Ewings Sarcoma, a children's cancer.  Now she's in Houston where she'll soon undergo surgery, which was already cancelled once because there wasn't enough O negative blood at the cancer center.

On Tuesday, friends and coworkers held a blood drive for her at Immanuel Baptist Church in Kingsford.

Katie Uren is one of just nine percent of the population that has O negative blood.  This means she can only receive red blood cells from O negative donors.

“Blood is life,” explains blood donor Diane VanAsten.  “We really hope and pray that she's going to get the amount of blood that she needs for her surgery.”

Katie will need 50 pints of blood for the extensive two-day surgery.

Organizers are hoping to get over 100 donors at the blood drive and 85-90 pints of blood.  They take one pint of blood at every donation.  The blood donation process takes about 15 minutes.

Seventy-one donors registered ahead of time, and the walk-ins kept coming in.

“You know, the turnout from the community has just been great,” said Angela Brumm, Public Relations Specialist from the Community Blood Center.  “We're so thankful and grateful to everyone who responded to this call and is donating blood today or has donated blood in the past.  We will continue to do so for Katie and other hospital patients."

According to the American Red Cross, a pint of blood can save up to three lives.

And someone will need blood every two seconds.  

“In this day and age,” said blood drive coordinator, Darlene Johnson, "you know, people think that people's hearts are kind of hardened.  And to have such a beautiful person like Katie in the world is just unbelievable."

Katie Uren’s surgery will take over 20 hours and is scheduled for October 12 and 13.