Graydon Patton is quite proud of the string of colorful plastic feet attached to his backpack. Each one was earned in his prekindergarten running program at Queen of Peace Catholic Academy.

During the LifeSouth Community Blood Center’s Five of Points of Life Kids Marathon on Saturday, February 23, Graydon and hundreds of other children will complete the final 1.2 miles of a 26.2 mile marathon. In the weeks and months prior to race day, they’ve carefully charted the first 25 miles of the race, earning one mile at a time. It’s quite an accomplishment for a child, but, in Graydon’s case, it’s amazing.

The Five Points of Life races, now in their third year, raise awareness of donations of blood, apheresis, marrow, organ and tissue and cord blood – five different ways to help save a life.

Graydon, his mother Elizabeth and father Alex know about a couple of those points personally.

Four years ago, Graydon was born with a congenital heart defect. He spent most of the first two weeks of life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Shands at the University of Florida, where he received his first blood transfusion. Eight weeks later he underwent open-heart surgery and, again, received blood.

“It was a shock when they said they were going to have to give him blood,” Elizabeth recalls.

And while she was willing to donate for her son, the need was immediate, there was no time to waste, and the blood he needed was already standing by in the hospital blood bank.

“I was very thankful,” Elizabeth says.

Today, she says, Graydon “is a very active little boy.” He likes collecting those feet for running and is really looking forward to earning his Five Points gold medal – something that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of a blood donor.

And while he’s received blood, Graydon and his sister Kellyn (age 2) also can count themselves among the growing number of children who are blood donors.

“With his and his sister’s birth, we donated their cord blood,” Elizabeth says.

Blood from a baby’s umbilical cord can be collected, tested and frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored for years. Cord blood is rich with blood stem cells and can be used to help patients with cancers, such as leukemia and lymphoma, and diseases, including sickle cell anemia. Cord blood donations are also one of the Five Points of Life.

Elizabeth says the decision to donate the cord blood from Graydon and Kellyn was a “no brainer,” an opportunity she couldn’t pass up.

The Five Points of Life Race weekend will be held on Saturday, February 23 and Sunday, February 24. On Saturday, there will be a race expo at the UF & Shands Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine Institute(9 a.m.-6 p.m.), a kids marathon at 3 p.m. and the Five Points 5K at 4 p.m. On Sunday, the marathon and half-marathon will start at 7 a.m. For more information, visit or call 224-1600.

Story & Photo courtesy of LifeSouth Community Blood Centers.