101 Blood Donors!

Our Blood Donor Day at my office was a wonderfully festive and successful affair. Donors from our building (PenQuin and Group 5 Civil Engineering) were well represented. We also welcomed many guests from surrounding offices in our area of Bedfordview. We received ONE HUNDRED AND ONE donations. And there were a good number of other people who came through but were unable to donate because of low iron, low blood pressure, too light (<50kg), colds and recent antibiotic use.


SANBS were outstanding. They arrived on time and promptly set up the donation area. Sure, they do this all the time, but it is great to see their efficiency. The sisters were all very friendly and helpful, keeping the steady stream of donors flowing through the blood typing (a special add-on they offered on the day, so that first time donors could find out their blood type there and then), iron level testing, blood pressure measurements and on to the beds.

Two of my friends, Simon and Lauren, came from across town to join our Donor Day (thank you!). And another friend, in the E. Cape, Darrell, went to his local donor clinic last week to make his contribution. He sent through a smiling photo.



My thanks to PenQuin for saying, "Yes!" and for letting me go ahead with putting this together. To Sini and his team from SANBS - Wow! You are all really fantastic. To my friends at work, thank you for helping out with the design of the flyers and tattoos, blowing up of balloons, handing out juice, putting temporary tattoos on to the donors and holding the hands of new donors; and to Eddie and the ladies downstairs who gave me permission to use the floor space in our building's atrium, without hesitation. And also a BIG thank you to each of the donors for coming through to donate. Your blood saves lives.

In special mention, Roz from Active Power Trading printed our promotional vinyl banner at no charge; Lesley from LawPrint did our posters and flyers - and they printed the posters and an extra 1000 flyers for us just because they could, at no charge. Jade from GeckoMedia handled our temporary tattoo order professionally, chasing the couriers who didn't deliver on time. Jade drove through to the airport from Sandton, on the morning of the Donor Day, to collect the tattoos for us. Wow!

As a final thought, I'd like to encourage you all to become regular donors - that's 3 or more donations each year. It is only when you are a regular donor that all your blood components are used. There are SANBS donor clinics all over the country so donating is convenient. SANBS will also visit your office every 3 months; this is something we're going to do for our building - and the donors who attended on Friday. Their website is very informative - www.sanbs.org.za

I've been a very slack donor the past few years due to regular visits to malaria areas and racing - I got out of the habit. It feels good to do this little something - it's a good turn that along the way I may need in return.