Week 9 and a call to arms (literally)
Blood / Platelet Donation,
Let me start this by telling you what made me start donating.
On August the 11th 1999 during the solar eclipse my Grandma died, she had been battling various forms of cancer for the previous few years, during this time she needed a lot of blood & chemo and as she was the same blood type as me something clicked in my head and said I should be donating my blood to replace what she had needed.
Now my father had been a long time blood donor & latterly a Platelet donor, but my fear of needles had held me off following in his footsteps doing this.
This major event in my life made me power through and man up and for the next 15 years (with a couple of gaps for getting tattoos) I donated blood every 3-4 months, then in 2014 I made the change to platelet donation, this gave me the opportunity to donate almost every month as the red blood cells are returned into my body.
Platelet donation is used slightly differently to Whole Blood donation and is used mainly in the following ways;
- Treatment for Chemotherapy
- Organ / Bone Marrow Transplant
- Life threatening bleeding
- To treat severe blood disorders
Just 1 platelet donation can help 3 adults or 12 children!!
The only lifestyle change I had to make for platelet donation is to cut back on fatty foods & cheese around the donation date as it clouds the sample and they can’t tell if it’s good or not, which isn’t a bad change to my diet really.
It takes a little longer than normal donation (about 1-1½ hours) but there are great nurses on hand with Tea / Biscuits / Sandwiches and a chat if you want any of them.
If you’re not on the organ donation for whatever reason, then maybe think about either blood or platelet donation, just an hour out of your life every month or 30 minutes every 3 months and you can help lots of people.
They have even started to send you a text telling you what hospital your donation has been issued to which is a nice little touch.
They need blood & platelet donations 365 days a year and especially around Christmas so if you’re thinking about it now is a great time.
Find out more below & the location of your nearest donation session;
Have a good weekend, see you all next week!!
PoBz
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