If you can, please make donating blood a news year resolution...

[Thorilicious]

I've only been able to donate once this year, but was booked in for 3 appointments. These had to be cancelled due to Covid in the house, but that's 2 pints that could have saved someone's life.
I appreciate some people can't or don't feel comfortable donating blood, but if it's something that you've always thought about doing, make 2022 the year you sign up.
Plus, you get biscuits at the end of your session!

Well as I’m in the middle of hellish dental work it will have to wait but will diarise this. Used to donate decades ago still have my little booklet with certificates stuck in somewhere. Then I started travelling and couldn’t due to jabs and possible infection/diseases.
Thanks op.

To the poster above who asked how you would know if you had a transfusion during surgery, they will tell you at the time.

Sadly I can no longer donate due to being a grateful recipient but maybe one day the rules will change and I can get back.

Really really wish I could but I have to wait till mid 2023 before I can again (medication that I no longer take but have to have been off for a number of years before I can donate again).

Definitely there with encouragement for those who can, and for those who are feeling a bit wobbly about it.

I used to but not allowed anymore.

My daughter had an accident earlier this year and almost bled to death. She took 6 or 8 (it’s late and I forget) bags of red blood, 2 of plasma and 2 of cryoprecipitate. Thank you more than I can say to the blood donors out there, you truly saved my daughter’s life.

Every time I try I get it. I was booked in but had a bad cold - green snot kind so didn't think it wise. Rebooked. It went to my chest. Cancelled with a view to rebooking. Went to my throat. Finally stopped being ill and I had to have root canal treatment. Not sure how long it has to be since you had dental work so hoping to get a donation in early Jan and have my platelets retested as I was donating gold blood before I had my twins just prior to lockdown

To all those struggling to get appointments, are you booking them on the website? I don't know if blood group makes a difference but i'm A- and can generally get/change appointments at short notice.

I've been banned for donating for a year because of my low haemoglobin. I have hylersplenism and anemia is one of the side effects 😭

Just an another fact, the rules have finally changed for gay men www.blood.co.uk/who-can-give-blood/men-who-have-sex-with-men/ which is no bad thing.

The difficulty with appointments here is that there is only one session every 6 weeks or so, people rebook as soon as they've donated so it gets booked up several months ahead, it's ok if you are one of those people but I find if I have to cancel due to work or having a cold for example I have to look several months away for another slot. There are also sessions once a month or so in the town I work in which I also use but the same thing applies. All the others are so much further away we're talking half a day off work which is a bit much.

My life was saved by a large blood transfusion (about 5 units all told) when I had arterial bleeding during a c-section. I can never thank those selfless donors enough. I obviously cannot give blood now but many family members go regularly because of what happened to me.

@SolasAnla

Thanks for the reminder

If anyone want to donate and your blood is an "unpopular" group ask about platelet donation in your local area. It's used in cancer treatments and you need strong veins (man veins are generally better for this) as the blood is returned back to you minus the bits they need.

I donate regularly & they assessed me for platelet donation the last time I was in but my vein was no good sadly. It's such a good thing to do so was disappointed I couldn't help out that way.

I've never had an appointment cancelled - surprised to read that so many have.

Sorry to say I have given up now.
I'm on the stem cell donation register though.
It's been a shambles where I am..cancelled appointments, rude staff, confused, flustered staff forgetting people, not calling them or calling ones who had been. Maybe will try again in future...

I used to, but have had malaria, also transfusion, both of which rule me out. Like OP, I’m minorly phobic of needles (not to the extent that I’d be unable to have life-saving treatment for myself, so of course I can do it for others!) but staff were always lovely so I managed fine.

Gave up a few years ago after 29 donations. As a previous poster says the sessions are booked up by people already at the sessions. I had a year of please donate texts, emails and phonecalls asking me to donate as I'm O- , lovely chap managed to shoehorn me into a session, then the next 4 were fully booked.
I abandoned it in the end.

It's a shame so many people have trouble with cancelled appointments, they seem to have done away with walk ins.

One thing that does sometimes work for getting appointments, is putting a reminder in your phone for a day or two before a session and checking then, there are often last minute slots available through others cancelling.