Giving myself to save others: donating blood

I finally gave in to the blood suckers at the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.

I always wanted to but made lots of excuses. Time, needles, too busy, too sick. After being a human pincushion when I was pregnant I realised it would be fine.

So here I am euphoric after finally donating, or am I giddy from blood loss or too much sugar?

I'm a life saver - and so are they with their little treats

For those like me who put it off, let me combat those excuses.

I'm too busy. I don't have time.

Wrong. It takes just over an hour. But if we factor in driving, parking and it's your first donation, let's call the whole thing 90 minutes of your day. What else would you do in that time? Watch TV? Play on your phone? Read? Talk to a friend? Well you can do those things for at least half of your donation. That's lots of sitting down time.

I hate needles

Touché. So did I. They are super professional and it hurts as much as a pinch on the arm. So if you need to build the pain tolerances, get an annoying cousin/niece/nephew, preferably 7 years old to pinch you got an hour. You'll get use to it.

I hate the sight of blood

Here's a tip... Don't look! There's plenty to distract you like TV, things to read, people to talk to.

 

I don't know if they'll accept me

So don't waste your time and theirs and compete the online survey Red Cross provides. Easy.

I don't know my blood type

That's fine. They have all of the testing equipment and the bonus is, you get to find out, for the slight fee of giving your blood.

 

It just goes to vampires

First of all, you're crazy.  Secondly, at least it stops the vampires from gorging on the all you can eat buffet of humanity.

And if you need another reason to do ate, the staff are lovely, you actually find out health information like your blood pressure, iron levels and general healthiness at no charge AND you can eat what ever you like from the recovery lounge. Millkshakes, sausages rolls, chocolate, toasted sandwiches. It's like going to your grandmother's house for treats with none of the associated probing questions and guilt.

So go on, roll up and donate. It'll make you feel good. At least that's why I think I feel happy.

Australian Red Cross - Blood Service

P: 13 95 96

W: donateblood.com.au