blood

Five pints

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Photos of my blood donor and bone marrow donor cards

Yesterday I donated my fifth pint of blood, just over a year after my first pint. Despite having not donated at all during the first 28 years of my life, I’ve decided to become a regular donor, and I volunteered to take part in the Interval study earlier this year.

I’m lucky that I can give regularly; I work near to a donor centre and am able to get time off work for donations. There are only 24 centres in England and some cities like York don’t have them. And I’m also lucky to be relatively healthy and don’t have any medical conditions that prevent me from giving blood.

I have had one failed donation; when the needle was inserted it somehow missed a vein. That meant having to re-arrange for a new appointment a couple of weeks later, which thankfully went fine. I now give blood from my right arm, even though I’m right-handed, as I seem to have better veins there. This does mean that I can’t really use my right arm for a couple of hours afterwards, so my appointments are in afternoons, after work. The failed donation also shows on my record, so I’ve had my ’5-9 donations’ card for a while even though at the time I had only donated four pints of blood.

Despite donating regularly, I still don’t like needles. I have learned how to cope with this and whilst it’s never a pleasant experience, once the needle is in and the blood starts flowing it doesn’t hurt. I have a similar coping mechanism for my annual ‘flu jabs. Sometimes I get a bruise on my arm as well.

I’ve also opted in to the Bone Marrow Registry, as this can be done at the same time as a donation.

At some point in future I may decide to donate platelets, which fewer people do. It’s a longer procedure, taking around 90 minutes, but can be done more frequently – as often as every two weeks in some cases. However, platelet donors can’t also give blood the regular way, so I wouldn’t be able to take part in the Interval study.

My next appointment is at the end of February, for pint number six.

The blood donation interval study

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A screenshot of the web site for the Blood Donation INTERVAL study

I’ve recently volunteered to part of the INTERVAL study, which will look into how frequently blood donors can give blood.

At present, the guidelines are very rigid: men can give every twelve weeks and women can give every sixteen weeks. What the interval study aims to do is allow some people to donate more frequently, whilst monitoring samples of blood taken at the donation. The hope is that, in future, regular donors will be able to give blood more often than at present, boosting blood stocks.

The NHS Blood Service is already facing challenges. The recent heatwave in the UK has led to fewer people giving blood and current stocks of O- and B- blood groups are critically low (less than four days’ worth). The UK also has an ageing population with people living longer, and more blood will be needed to support the very young and very old who can’t donate themselves. And despite recent drives to recruit more donors, only around 4% of people give blood.

Some other EU countries already allow people to donate more frequently. In Austria, it’s eight for men and ten for women. However, there may be factors that affect how regularly individual people can donate, which is why samples will be taken at each donation. This may mean that, following the outcomes of the study, some people will be able to donate more frequently than others. What is most interesting about the study is its size: in total, 50,000 regular donors are needed – 25,000 men and 25,000 women.

I’ll admit that it took me until last year to give my first pint of blood, but I’ve donated twice since then, and agreed to be part of the interval study. Of course, with my luck being as it is, I’m in the control group and can therefore still only give blood every twelve weeks. But some men will be selected to give every ten weeks or even every eight weeks. Women will be able to donate every sixteen weeks (the control group), fourteen or twelve weeks.

There are a few caveats with the interval study. Firstly, you will have to, as far as possible, keep to the regular donation cycle that you have been placed onto with minimal variations. Secondly, the study is for two years, so you will need to sustain the regular donations for this period. Finally, the donations you make will need to be at one of the 24 dedicated blood centres in England; thankfully there’s one in Bradford which is within walking distance from work. But my friends in York would have to go to Leeds, for example.

Hopefully the results of the interval study will confirm that it is safe for people to donate more frequently. Until such a time comes when we can safely and efficiently manufacture replacement blood, our hospitals are reliant on a regular supply of blood from donors. Being able to make optimal use of the small minority who do give blood regularly will benefit so many more patients in urgent need of a transfusion.

If you don’t already give blood, you can find more details on blood.co.uk.

Blood donation

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I donated blood for the first time today.

On Tuesday, I donated a pint of blood, for the first time.

It’s been something that I’ve been meaning to do for quite some time. I’m already an organ donor (I carry a card around which shows that I give consent for my organs to be used in transplants after my death), but until now I’ve never given blood.

I couldn’t donate throughout much of 2007 and 2008, as I had been on high-strength steroid tablets due to flare-ups with my asthma and my overnight stay in hospital in November 2007. But although I’ve been okay since then, I admit that I’ve simply never got around to it, even when there have been donation sessions at work.

My big worry was that it would hurt. And it did – a bit. For me the worst bit was the needle being inserted at the start; the pain was similar to when I’ve had vaccinations but lasted a little longer. However, once it was in, it was okay – a little uncomfortable, but not painful, and it was done after around 10-15 minutes. All in all, I was there for about an hour, due to me being a new donor and needing a slightly longer medical check first.

Afterwards, the site where the needle went in was a little tender for a few hours, but I didn’t receive any bruising and there was just a small red dot when I took the bandage off.

I’ve already booked another appointment, for mid-March next year, to donate my second pint. If you want to give blood, you can find details at blood.org.uk – the NHS needs a constant supply of blood and so if you are healthy and can spare the time I’d urge you to do it.