Tis the Season to Give - The Gift of Life

12 These blood bags were designed to encourage people to donate blood during the Christmas holiday season. If you're feeling generous, just fill the sock from Santa Claus with a little blood.



I wish I could give blood. Because I lived in the UK throughout the BSE / mad cow outbreak neither Ireland where I used to live or Australia where I now live will take my blood. There is no chance I caught anything as my mother's fear of food poisoning meant that I didn't know there was a difference between roast lamb and roast beef until I was 12!! What I found frustrating living on the border in Ireland was when the republic was short on blood it would borrow from Northern Ireland!

I can't give blood either. But I try to do my share by sponsoring blood drives twice a year at our church. The mobile unit comes and we have a good time. We have many dedicated donors who give as often as they can throughout the year. Some are very sad when they can no longer give due to illness, medications, trips to remote areas in foreign countries, etc.

I wish I could give blood too, but I take a couple of medications that are on their list of" no-no's" so I can't. I do encourage healthy people to donate whenever possible, however. My husband used to do it all the time when he was healthy; we used to say that he gave enough for the both of us.

I used to donate platelets regularly and recently started again. Its a bit of a chore being tied up to the apheresis machine but its worth it, and is s good way to give back to the community!

Quote from K+MgSO4I wish I could give blood. Because I lived in the UK throughout the BSE / mad cow outbreak neither Ireland where I used to live or Australia where I now live will take my blood. There is no chance I caught anything as my mother's fear of food poisoning meant that I didn't know there was a difference between roast lamb and roast beef until I was 12!! What I found frustrating living on the border in Ireland was when the republic was short on blood it would borrow from Northern Ireland!

Quote from madwife2002I have the same problem it is frustrating, I hate not being able to give blood because of the potential of BSE

I cannot donate blood either, but applaud those who do so!

I'm on some meds that won't allow it but have always wished I was able to. I wish more people would that could. We have blood drives at our school and I always wish I could help save a life.

I keep trying to give blood, but my hemoglobin tends to sit between 11 and 12. I try and boost it up a few days before I try to donate and if I am lucky I can get it to the needed 12.5, but just barely!

I give blood just about every time I can, even though my blood type isn't very high on the needed list since I'm A+ and so is like.. 1/3 of everybody in the US, if I remember correctly. They know me as the quickie giver because I sit there and hold the hand thingy and pump the entire time and can fill their bag in 3 minutes. And then they eyeball me like a hawk in the rest section thinking I'm going to fall out of my chair and faint from giving that quickly, but hey, one of the perks of being overweight is that giving blood doesn't seem to phase me whatsoever. Eventually, though, I'll be exempted from giving blood due to contact with a MSM, which is ridiculous =/.

Thanks to people like you, Amnesty, who give as often as you can, so many people have been helped.

Kay28.......yes donating platelets takes a long time. Thanks for taking that extra time.