Random Ramblings
Created | Updated May 17, 2007
When I came back from the h2g2 London Meet the other week, there was a letter waiting for me. It was an invitation from the Red Cross, asking me to donate blood in our local town hall on a set day. I was quite excited; I have never before donated blood. I have always been a bit on the light side weight-wise and my blood pressure used to be too low, too, which is why at my old age, I haven't ever donated blood.
When I made my first attempt at donating blood last year in August or September, I wasn't allowed to due to a disease I had had two years previously. The rules were I had to wait for two years after the end of the medical treatment. Well, that was fine with me; after all, I didn't expect to lose the weight I had gained after recovering any time soon, and my blood pressure had normalised.
So on Thursday off I went at the appointed time, or rather within the time frame they offered. Filled in the form, went through the hassle of answering all the questions the doctor asked me: starting with asking me for a medical certificate to prove I'm healthy, then doubting my weight, etc (I guess it's worse when you have been rejected before; they really want to know everything again, even though you wrote it all on the form), and then she measured my blood pressure — and it was too low. I was really surprised it was so low because I felt good, but she checked on both arms, so it had to be true. Well, so I went home again, without having lost a single drop of blood.
I was quite disappointed that it hadn't worked out, so I wrote a journal entry about that. While doing so, I had the idea: I asked my friends to donate blood for me. I didn't address those of my friends who donate blood anyway, but asked those who, like me, have never donated blood before. The feedback was overwhelming. Several people dropped in from the info page, presuming this was a thread on Askh2g2. And to my surprise, I found out that my idea wasn't new at all. There even is a 'Give Blood on My Behalf' page on h2g2, and there was an article about it in the Post. Somehow, the scheme got forgotten, but I think this is a perfect time to try to revive it.
People who replied to my journal so far:
- Friends who are turned down for various reasons like low blood pressure, medication, age, etc.
- Friends who donate regularly.
- Friends who haven't donated for a few years but promised to start again.
- Friends who, like me, have never donated before, but promised to look into it.
And two people now posted back that they went and donated blood:
- Moonhogg who wrote a wonderful poem about this.
- SWL, who hadn't donated for several years and originally didn't intend to do it again.
I really hope this will get your attention and that you'll maybe think about going to donate blood — if not on my behalf, then maybe on your own, or on behalf of somebody you love.
