This week is National Blood Week
Some reasons why you might NOT want to give blood:-
Having a needle prick test might make your finger a little bit sore.
You have to answer some tricky questions, such as whether you’ve recently been on an exotic holiday, had a tattoo or if you have a sore throat.
Hanging around waiting for your turn is a bit of a pain and you might miss something really good on the telly.
Some reasons why you might WANT to give blood:-
Each unit of blood donated is split into its constituent parts, and can save up to three lives. How amazing is that?
Whilst donating, you get to lie down on a really cool, reclining pod-chair (These chairs may well have originally been designed as super comfy capsules for lulling futuristic astronauts into hyper-sleep prior to releasing them on their mission to save Mars from imminent attack) and if you time it well, you could quite possibly get out of putting the children to bed.
NHS Blood and Transplant supplies hospitals with around 7,000 units of blood every day, but in order to continue to meet that demand, they must recruit nearly 200,000 new donors every year.
After you have donated, a friendly person will give you a drink and a choice of snacks. I chose a yummy Club biscuit last time – in fact it may have been more than one. . .
The number of regular blood donors has fallen by 23% over the past decade
Your selfless gesture of time and effort will be rewarded with a mega virtuous feeling – Oh, and did I mention chocolate?
Are you Eligible?
Most people are potentially able to give blood, but there are some exceptions.
The minimum age for blood donation is 17 years
You should not give blood if you are pregnant or you are a woman who has had a baby in the last 6 months.
For more details and to find out about booking an appointment to give blood, please visit www.blood.co.uk.
Thank you
This is a really great thing that anyone can do for their community – and you never know when you’ll need the odd pint yourself, or for your own children.
I’m past it now (ancient) but gave blood for the first time when I was still at college and carried on until they wouldn’t have me any more. Even gave blood when I was working in France for 13 years (used to be given a big ham sandwich and a mug of red wine over there, afterwards!).
It’s understandably a bit scary before your first time but really it’s a piece of cake. Do it!
Very impressive record Joe!
Do you think we could introduce the mug of red wine over here? I’m sure it would boost the number of volunteers dramatically!
Thanks for reading and commenting.
Thanks for reading and commenting Kath. Despite having been an irregular donor myself, I feel that this is an important and yet quite simple gesture to make. I ‘must try harder’ to give blood regularly now that pregnancies are a thing of the past. Anyone else want to join me?
Everyone needs to read this post, if I wasn’t already a regular donor you would have convinced me