Friday just gone (7th Aug) me and my friend went down to donate our blood and help a worthy cause.

We’ve been meaning to do it since we turned 17, but never got around to it.

Once we got there we had a little intro, with a few health questions and a glass of water, to hydate us. We then sat and waited until it was our turn to give away a pint of blood. Whilst waiting we were asked to read the welcome pack, which informed us of health issues, factors that could effect us from giving blood and a brief thing on what effect it may cause to us after donating our healthy blood.

Just before you lie down on the beds, they go through your answers to the previous questions you were asked before, and inform you if you can or cannot donate your blood, me and jenna both got the all clear and off we went on our seperate beds, happy and please we were about to do the world some good, and hope for none of the side effects.

After my needle was in, my nurse asked me to sqeeze a cotton role kind of thing, to increase my blood flow, as my was going very slow…which i wasnt to impressed with, to be honest i was rather worried, but to my delight, pretty much everyone in the room was doing the same thing.

After several minutes of trying to avoid the tube with my flowing blood, a nurse came over and took my needle out and told me i could relax now, which i did. After 5 more minutes, she asked me about 10 times if i was OK to sit up, i kept saying yes, and eventually she let me off the bed, after informing me, i was one of the unlucky ones and had suffered with bruising, she also told me it would get worse before it got better…i was OK with that, until i removed my plaster and saw the state of my arm! It looks like the latter result of a pub brawl, as well as making me look like abit of a skanky crack head.

Before I saw the state of my arm though, just after checking on my lovely and amazing friend, i went to sit down, then woke up with 10 differnt faces in my face, which confused me alot! Apparently i’d fainted…which i was quite embarrassed about to say the least. This probably happend because for one it was my first time and two your meant to eat alot before you got to donate blood, which I hadn’t, nor did Jenna.

So after fainting, not being able to move my arm for the rest of the day, feeling dizzy and sick…oh and the lovely state of my arm, is donating blood really worth it? To be honest, i think it is, just to know that i could be saving someones life, like someone saved my nephew, and jennas little nephew, i’m happy with that thought, and the brusing will go away…eventually!

I’d recomend it, just to have the satisfaction of helping someone in need.

DONATE YOUR BLOOD TODAY!