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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to remind people about donating blood?

205 replies

MLMshouldbeillegal · 06/11/2021 10:14

Gave blood this week at a community session near my house. The nurse who chatted to me as my blood was being taken was saying how much the pandemic has impacted them - no walk ins, everyone has to make an appointment, if people don't/can't turn up after booking that's a slot lost, numbers are down because people are avoiding being around other people.

So if you can - and I know not everyone can - please consider signing up as a donor or going back to being a donor if you did in the past and haven't been in a while.

OP posts:
CounsellorTroi · 07/11/2021 12:09

I can’t donate any more - I’m a mad cow risk because of IVF drugs I took 25 years ago. But thanks to those who do.

Youdoyoutoday · 07/11/2021 12:12

I used to give blood but can't anymore due to receiving a donation myself. I wish I could as it's such a worthy cause!

EatSleepRantRepeat · 07/11/2021 12:14

Anyone who ate meat here in the 80s and before 1996 is a vCJD risk though? Other countries won't accept older Brits blood at all for this reason.

EvilRingahBitch · 07/11/2021 12:22

Yes, everyone of our age is a vCJD risk, but as a blood recipient you're potentially double (or treble or whatever) the risk of anyone else. The UK blood services can't (yet) exclude everyone who ate British meat in the eighties and nineties and maintain supply, but it can exclude recipients and maintain supply, so it does.

CounsellorTroi · 07/11/2021 12:23

@EatSleepRantRepeat

Anyone who ate meat here in the 80s and before 1996 is a vCJD risk though? Other countries won't accept older Brits blood at all for this reason.
Logically yes, but this is what it says on the blood donation website

my.blood.co.uk/knowledgebase/Index/F

CounsellorTroi · 07/11/2021 12:24

Sorry you need to scroll down to Fertility and click on it.

stopblowingyournose · 07/11/2021 12:26

I've been on a low iron ban. Also there is a 3-4 month wait for appointments in my area. But yanbu people need to make the effort.

LighthouseLass · 07/11/2021 13:07

DH donates regularly and gets reminders. A few weeks ago he drove to the donation centre on his lunch break, he was five minutes late due to traffic. He found they'd shut down the centre and wouldn't let him in.

They sent a nurse out who told him superciliously "we run on our own schedule, not everyone else's" and told him to bugger off basically!

It didn't seem to make much sense given that you usually have to wait, and then you're in there for at least half an hour. Why would they have just shut the whole place down?

He was very apologetic for being late - it didn't seem very fair to be so arsey, especially given that he's been a reliable regular donor for years.

EvilRingahBitch · 07/11/2021 13:13

Anyway, this thread has reminded me to make an appointment for when I'm out of purdah from my cold. Timed it nicely to do some Christmas shopping at John Lewis once I'm finished.

DrRamsesEmerson · 07/11/2021 14:06

@madmomma

I donate blood, and I couldn't care less if staff are rude or appointments get cancelled. You don't donate for the staff do you, and if you want to give, you'll wait for a new appointment. We'd be a bit stuck if everyone looked for petty reasons not to.
Good for you, but lots of people do care if they’re taking time to do something for other people’s benefit and they’re treated with contempt. If they cancel an appointment at the last minute and then there aren’t any more for four months (my situation- I was meant to donate last week, next available appointment is February), they’ve lost out unnecessarily on a donation.
ElftonWednesday · 07/11/2021 14:11

Not being able to find appointments and rude staff are not petty reasons. There are other things going on in people's lives, they are not walking blood tanks available to be hooked up to give their pint at a whim. If something which involves as much altruism as blood donation is not made simple, effortless and pleasant then people will not put themselves through it.

GlmPmum · 07/11/2021 14:24

You're not being unreasonable but what is unreasonable and driving me bonkers at the minute is them calling me all the time to book me in to donate when I keep telling them due medical issues currently I can't and will soon as I can.

I totally get there is a massive shortage of my sub type and I feel guilty I can't donate and help someone at the minute but if they keep hounding me like this I'll end up withdrawing myself all together.

Rant not aimed at OP BTW just needed to to vent somewhere...

stopblowingyournose · 07/11/2021 14:27

I've now booked an appointment for Tuesday. Thank you for the nudge. I've texted a few friends too about it.

soughsigh · 07/11/2021 14:40

I've loved reading through some of these responses! Can't believe how many people are past or close to donation 100!

I've donated about 10 times (across England and Scotland so I don't know exactly how many) and haven't been able to for the last 4 years due to pregnancy. I only just manage to get out a pint in the 15 minutes.

LemonPeonies · 07/11/2021 14:48

@steff13 yeah about as fascinating as your comment watching paint dry 😅. Pp's are taking my comment so personally because you know its true. If you get run over today and receive a blood transfusion to save your life, thank god for the donor who supplied your blood right? But I can't be asked donating myself, someone else can do it. It is a selfish attitude and I think it's just humans attitudes in general, we are pretty selfish like that. That's all I was saying 😊

Maryann1975 · 07/11/2021 15:03

I gave blood once, in the summer a few years ago. I went back however many months later they suggest, planning for it to become a regular thing. They wouldn’t take my blood as I had been in contact with someone with conjunctivitis. I had no symptoms myself. I made another appointment for when I was clear and I couldn’t give again as I’d had a bit of a cold. So I gave up and haven’t been back. I work in early years. It’s virtually impossible for me not to be around germs on a daily basis, especially this time of year.

Rowgtfc72 · 07/11/2021 15:46

I stopped giving blood around the 29 pint mark. Couldn't get an appointment at all but was being bombarded with letters, calls and texts to give as I was O -.
Even rang the helpline for a lovely chap to get me back into the system and squeeze me in an appointment. Couldn't get another one for 9 months.
In the end I told them to take me off the system.

XenoBitch · 07/11/2021 15:54

[quote LemonPeonies]@steff13 yeah about as fascinating as your comment watching paint dry 😅. Pp's are taking my comment so personally because you know its true. If you get run over today and receive a blood transfusion to save your life, thank god for the donor who supplied your blood right? But I can't be asked donating myself, someone else can do it. It is a selfish attitude and I think it's just humans attitudes in general, we are pretty selfish like that. That's all I was saying 😊[/quote]
Not a single comment on this thread has been someone saying they can't be assed to donate.

DrRamsesEmerson · 07/11/2021 15:57

Go on then @LemonPeonies, tell us how many times you've donated. I've donated 36 times so far (would be 37 but the blood service cancelled last week).

ThreeFeetTall · 07/11/2021 16:20

I can't anymore as I'm not allowed to bring my toddler (asleep in the buggy) and no one to watch him. I'm sure this used to be allowed but I guess it's a covid thing?

Original poster
MLMshouldbeillegal · 07/11/2021 16:36

@GlmPmum

You're not being unreasonable but what is unreasonable and driving me bonkers at the minute is them calling me all the time to book me in to donate when I keep telling them due medical issues currently I can't and will soon as I can.

I totally get there is a massive shortage of my sub type and I feel guilty I can't donate and help someone at the minute but if they keep hounding me like this I'll end up withdrawing myself all together.

Rant not aimed at OP BTW just needed to to vent somewhere...

I hear you! There's not much joined up thinking in the NHS or blood service.

I had a hysterectomy 5 years ago. They took my uterus (obviously) as well as my fallopian tubes and my cervix.

I have had 3 letters in the last 6 months inviting me for a smear on my non-existent cervix. Letters issued centrally, not from the GP. Every time I call they promise they'll sort it, they never do. I'm half tempted to pitch up for the appointment and let them see for themselves...

OP posts:
EatSleepRantRepeat · 07/11/2021 16:56

@CounsellorTroi

Sorry you need to scroll down to Fertility and click on it.
Thanks very much for the link - there are so many more exclusions than I remember! I can only recall them asking if I was a sex worker, if I had sex with men who also had sex with men, and if I had any recent piercings or tattoos. I guess all the other stuff must have been picked up on the medical assessment forms because I wasn't told after my fibroid ops that I needed to wait 4 months either.
girlmom21 · 07/11/2021 17:01

@GlmPmum

You're not being unreasonable but what is unreasonable and driving me bonkers at the minute is them calling me all the time to book me in to donate when I keep telling them due medical issues currently I can't and will soon as I can.

I totally get there is a massive shortage of my sub type and I feel guilty I can't donate and help someone at the minute but if they keep hounding me like this I'll end up withdrawing myself all together.

Rant not aimed at OP BTW just needed to to vent somewhere...

Next time they phone tell them you can't do age for a set period of time. Say 6-12 months dependent on the issue.

I can't donate til the spring because I've recently given birth and they just put a note on my account so nobody calls me before then.

cadburyegg · 07/11/2021 17:12

Thanks for the nudge OP. I haven't donated in 10 years for lots of reasons, and although I still have my old donor card I couldn't find my login details so couldn't log in. Called them yesterday and they sorted it within 10 minutes. Have an appointment next month

floweroverload · 07/11/2021 17:15

I tried several times to donate over the last 18 months having donated for years and I was told that I was not needed as I have the most common blood type.