Friday, April 16, 2010

Donating Blood - Do it!!!

I donated blood today!!!

When I was still living in my home town, I donated a few times. At high school, as soon as my friends and I were old enough, we all got our parents to sign permission slips so we could get time off class to go in and donate blood - it was great! Time off class, free lollies and chocolate, and a nice sense of having done something good for community and society.

After school, I think I went once, maybe twice? I always meant to go but it was about getting organised and having the time to wait to donate as well. The donormobile came to uni and I donated there once...and then went straight to work....another time I think I played netball later in the day! But after uni it became more and more difficult to make the time to go....

Today I went into the city and happened to walk past the Blood Bank and it got me thinking - I should go and donate today! I had the day off and a few things to do, but nothing too pressing. So, after lunch with my Englishman I headed back and went inside.

How excited are the people who work in the Blood Bank! The lady at the desk was so excited as she had just had a rush of people - 4 people to be exact.When she looked up my details in the system (after asking me if I had donated before and I said "Yes, a long time ago"......) this lovely lady told me that I hadn't donated for 7 years!!! Then she smiled and said "Welcome back!"

The whole process was pretty quick. I didnt have to wait long for my interview (which I passed - phew!) or to actually donate either! Everyone was very friendly and helpful, asking what had prompted me to come in today, asking me how I was feeling......

And I felt pretty good! Yeah, the needle hurt when they put it in my arm, and when they took it out, and yeah, my arm is still a little sore 2 hours later, but the feeling of doing something good made it all worthwhile. The Red Cross needs much more donations than they get and it doesnt take a lot of time to do it!

I finished my trip to the Blood Bank with a small feast for free - chocolate milkshake, smiths chips, jam drops and a fun size mars bar - awesome!!! And a nice chat to the lady serving the food, who told me she had to stop donating after 45 donations because of a heart condition, and that the Guiness world record holder for donations attends their centre and is about 12 donations off having given blood 1000 times!!!

So my message today is - donate blood if you can, you'll feel good, you'll be saving 3 people's lives, and you'll get free food. And you never know, one day you might need someone else's blood donation to survive :-)

No comments:

Post a Comment