free tea and biscuit

BikerEd

pinktheatrebunny wrote: »

That's amazing, at a conservative estimate you must have saved 10 lives! :T :A Have a long distance round of applause and the excuse to feel smug all day!

It's really hard to put a number on how many lives are saved by donating blood. It could be fifty, it could be just one. My dad received around fifty units of red cells and platelets before he lost his two year fight against non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and leukaemia. He certainly would have died much sooner if he hadn't received any of those transfusions so I'm eternally grateful to those who were donating at the time. It is also why I continue to be a platelet donor.

lisak79

Without all the blood donors, my 19 month old daughter would not be here now as she had 3 heart ops in 2008 and has numerous blood transfusions due to complications. I am glad to say she is doing great at the moment but will need more heart ops as she grows as she now has an artificial heart valve so no doubt will need more blood transfusions in her future operations.

juno

You can use Blood donor online to keep track of your donations and see what bits of your blood they used last time!

I'm up to 8 donations :j

katyk_2

I made a point of allowing each of my children to come along with me - separate occasions to prevent capering - when they were quite young. The idea was imply to show them it does not hurt and is in no way a difficult or unpleasant thing to do. Would not have done so had I thought they would see other people freaking out or anything to put them off. I hope they will each decide to follow in my footsteps when they are old enough to do so. In all the years of my going I have only ever seen someone faint once, and have never seen anything worse. Very very occasionally someone may 'spring a small leak' afterwards if they have not held the plaster closely enough but it is no problem and is dealt with in a moment by staff.
Seriously people - since the rules came in preventing many people who had been in receipt of donations in the past (many people started to donate when needing themselves had made them aware of the necessity) donators are more needed than ever.

pink1310

hi i gave blood this tueday gone it was ok im not scared of needles i was more bothered about the fingerone lol.But as im nosey i asked too many questions and then they said about blood checks if anything wrong with the blood ect so ive been awake every night paranoid something may be wrong if there was would they have contacted me by now does anyone know???anything about health i worry.

formaldehyde_perfume

I'm going to give my second lot on Saturday. I'm going to ask about being a platelet and bone marrow donor too.

ean_ean_ean

A dirty, unhealthy man can have sex with

365 WOMEN A YEAR

and give blood.

A clean, healthy gay man with

1 LIFELONG PARTNER

cannot.

These rules are disgusting.

Prinzessilein

ean-ean-ean....you may well have a point. Personally, I would love to see the rules rewritten to ensure blood is safe, but to allow gay men in healthy relationships to also donate blood.
However, they are the rules, and we have to live with them.
Please, don't let the fact that you think the rules are unfair stop you giving blood if you are able. Read through this thread again and see how many people have mentioned that they or their loved ones would quite simply not be here if it was not for ordinary people giving blood.
I have given blood in the past, and if it were possible I would still be donating. It takes only a short while, it doesn't really hurt, and you save lives....and you get free tea and biscuits too!

JJ7

I just want to add my thanks to everyone who can and does give blood.

It really is appreciated so a big THANK YOU from me. :T

tealady

I have donated for umpteen years and STILL cant bear to watch the needle going in.
However I keep going for the good karma (and the Tuc biccys if I can find them!)
To any one who has ever thought, but not done think of this. There are people who you may know or meet are here on earth because of something freely given, there may be a day when you or a loved one need blood so what is stopping you from giving someone the most precious gift of all?