95th Blood Donation

Dropped in at the Blood Centre on Friday morning to donate blood. I’m giving whole blood these days so I go down once every three months. My bout of the flu delayed this donation, my 95th, for a month.

So well clear of the flu bug, I snatched some time between lesson prep, form submissions, a tutorial and student consultation to see some old friends.

I’ve been visiting almost every three months for more than a decade so there usually is at least one nurse I know from way back, an sure enough one was around. She chatted with me about the mangroves of course, and had even seen the recent episode on Arts Central.

I used to be back from all sorts of places in the old days with travel stories. That regular regional travel actually had me on monthly plasma donations for several years since my red blood cells might have been host to some dormant but exotic bug! I now lead a tame urban life, so its back to whole blood donation.

Sadly the pamphlets still say that only 1.5% of Singapore residents are donating regularly. I think about half the population are eligible donors. If the figure doubles to 3%, our stocks will be in a comfortable condition. Right now, for example, stocks of ‘A’ and ‘O’ blood are low.

A lot of my friends are sadly unable due to a long stay in the UK (mad cow), various health reasons, are too light or are anaemic!

If you have questions about donating, see HSA’s site on Blood Donation.

In other news on blood donation, in the US,

“Takes all Types is providing social media (including Facebook) applications to allow people to sign up as blood donors and receive alerts by phone, text, e-mail, Facebook, fax, whenever blood is needed in their local area.”

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