Donor December

I've decided that December will be a good month to encourage everyone I know (and that's a lot of people!) to donate blood. It's a time of year when around 1400 people will die on SA's roads. That said, the stats are just for the people who die; what about those who are seriously injured. It can take 25-60 units of blood to save one person's life!

So... please donate blood during December and if you are not a regular donor, see this as the start of becoming one. You need to donate at least three times a year to be classified as a regular donor in that your blood is safe and all components are used. Once-off donations make you feel good, but they're not totally useful.

SANBS needs to collect 3000 units every day; my local clinic is happy when they get 10 donations a day - they average just over 300 a month - not much eh?

I'm going to my local Bruma SANBS donation centre on Wednesday, 22 December 2010. Join me there or go to your local centre (find one here) any time during December. Please ask a nurse to take a photo of you donating and then email it to me. I'll make a nice-nice montage of the photos ;)

I've written a couple of posts about donating blood over the last year when I decided to regain my status as a regular blood donor. They explain how donation works, how blood is used etc.

http://adventurelisa.blogspot.com/2009/12/three-pints-in-six-months.html (30 December 2009)
http://adventurelisa.blogspot.com/2009/10/o-so-special.html (1 October 2009)
http://adventurelisa.blogspot.com/2009/05/blood-donor-day-12-june-2009.html (27 May 2009)