The Gift of Blood- Well worth considering.!

Today I  had an appointment with the Blood bank. Here in N.S.W where we live  we can either go into our permanent blood bank building right in town or if we are lucky enough to live  in areas where the mobile unit comes to we can donate there.
The latter was the case for me today ,so I ventured down to my local shopping centre this morning to do my donation.

I have been a blood donor off and on  since I was about 18, being a plasma donor for a while  but now back to donating whole blood. I was greeted by a friendly fellow outside who gave me some paperwork  with a few pages of questions designed to decide on my suitability as a donor.

I was then taken up the stairs to enter the lovely AIR CONDITIONED mobile donation centre.
Once inside I was weighed(unfortunately),my blood pressure taken, and my iron levels checked before being taken into a private interview room to personally discuss my answers to questions on the earlier paper work.

 After having my dreaded weight checked I relaxed for a while and was given a cool drink of my choice.

At this point, this is where my planned good deed came to an abrupt end, unfortunately due to the fact that I had been on some prescription medication I was unable to donate my blood today and would have to wait a couple of weeks before I could..
As I was leaving, I took a photo of the  lovely dedicated people who work on this mobile donation unit and we commented that most of the chairs were empty and that ,that, was a very sad thing,especially as donations are needed so badly.

I went home deflated, and was about to start writing this post when I had a thought, so I jumped back in my car, headed down to the shopping centre where the mobile  unit was  and asked if there was some kind person that would step in  my place and allow me to photograph them to complete my post, as I thought this to be an extremely worthwhile cause to be promoted if possible.

I was introduced to Hamish who kindly consented to allowing me to photograph him as he progressed through his blood donation.

They took Hamish's blood pressure, cleaned his arm and placed a needle in his arm to collect the blood.This is all relatively painless i can assure you, having  done it  about 50-60 times myself.
This was Hamish's 8th donation.

Each  donation only takes about 6-10 minutes, they take a total of 500mls of blood, 30mls in a sample for testing and 470mls in the larger  container.. You have to allow about an hour for the whole process from start to finish .

I noticed Hamish was quite relaxed  during the donation, even taking  some time out on his mobile phone. They then began the  short process of disconnecting him .

The blood donation is then taken over to the counter and sealed off, numerous checks are done repeatedly  and we were told that each of these donations are divided up into 3 different products, If I remember correctly it was red blood cells, plasma and platelets. This means  they said that 3 individual people can be helped with each donation instead of just one.

After the donation is complete, they usually ask you to sit quietly for a few minutes, to make sure you feel  alright , and then you exit the  unit and sit  outside for a bit with a cool drink and a nice selection of goodies to eat.
I sincerely wish to thank Hamish for his kind co-operation in helping me finish this, He told us that he was heading up to the vineyards in the Hunter Valley this weekend with his wife to celebrate their 1st  wedding anniversary, I wish them every happiness.
So as we go about our crazy ,rushed Christmas celebrations, please give a thought to many who  may desperately need your kind donations over  the holiday period.
If you are an Australian reader of this post then please  ring  the blood bank on  131495 or go to  Donate blood.com.au and make an appointment to do your little bit.
I hope and pray that there will be enough to meet the demands.
Thank you readers for staying with me on this one, it is something I truly believe in and every little bit helps a lot.
Thanks again,
until we meet again,
Jane.