Give Blood

So after a busy 5 weeks of summer holidays including travelling around Cuba, decorating my flat and lots of shopping, the August bank holiday came around. Having registered on the Blood donor website a while back (http://www.blood.co.uk), it occurred to me that with this day off (an extra day off for most, but not for me) I should do something useful to help others rather than lie in bed until lunchtime or sprawl on the sofa watching rubbish tv. The aforementioned website allows you to search for donor sessions by place, date, time....you name it. So by popping in today's date it told me there were 4 possible places to donate blood on bank holiday Monday.

15 mins later I was showered and dressed and preparing to drive to Ickenham, near Uxbridge. Following the website's instructions I ate breakfast and took with me a large bottle of water in the car.

The village hall was easy to find. There were a number of people there donating blood, from 18 year old boys to an older couple. Many were first timers like me!

A simple questionnaire highlighted that I was a concern - recent travel, vaccinations, piercings and tattoos within the last year meant that I had to have my blood earmarked for extra tests! The results of these will be through within 3 weeks if there is a problem with my donation. So then I had my iron/Hb levels checked through a simple pin prick of the finger. Following this I was led to a reclining chair, my left arm numbed and cleaned and the needle inserted. It didn't hurt. At all. 7 minutes later I was done. Once in the whole process I heard beeping from the donation machine - this was due to me ceasing to move my hand to keep the blood flowing! - but once I resumed the fist clenching all was OK.

For the rest of the day I rested as instructed. No, sorry, read that as - went shopping, played with the cat, cleaned the bathroom..... even went to fulfill another one of my list things of getting another tattoo, however this was scuppered due to dizziness when laying on the bed. Embarrassed and a little bit gutted, I went home! But another day I will get it finished!

Now that I've done it once I will do it again. I am actually gutted that I didn't have the courage to donate 10 years ago. If you want to do something to help others, only take an hour of your time and will make you feel good about yourself give blood. One day you, I or anyone we know may need blood.