Thread: Who else donates....whole blood, plasma or platelets

I used to be a blood donor but even though I am not a Pom, because I lived in the UK - very late 82 and into 83 I cannot give blood.

Originally Posted by loanrangie

Me too and lived in the UK during mad cow, last time i fell sick from malaria i was in a North Adelaide infectious diseases clinic where they told me i had an unknown parasite in my blood .

Maybe it’s an Alien life form...

First donated in Hong Kong, 1969, they gave a bottle of beer a pint. Donated as often as possible since, until high blood pressure put a stop to that. Until the Irish Club was shut down in Brisbane, it was donate, go to the club for a $10 pensioner meal, & a couple of pints of Guinness. Happy days.

Originally Posted by donh54

I've been a donor and a recipient, though not to the degree that Slunnie has! Hope it all works for you Slunnie, the fact you're still here is always a positive sign!

Hey thank you. I see the Haemotologist regularly and I'm in complete remission. Hopefully it stays that way.

Hospitals are absolutely amazing places, everybody should go to a hospital, Royal North Shore in my case, and just sit in the foyer for an hour and watch the people as they pass through. It makes you wonder how they grew from normal kids like everybody else and then this happened to them in their lives. Then meet a few of them and hear their stories, some of them will be happy stories and some of them will be very sad stories and most of them will probably leave you wondering how and why. I have so much respect for the Dr's, nurses, all of the support staff, the researchers and the people behind the scenes to make medicine what it is. Blood based medicine has come along in leaps and bounds and they are doing incredible things but it is still gutting when you meet somebody and their story isn't destined for a happy ending.

Originally Posted by bob10

First donated in Hong Kong, 1969, they gave a bottle of beer a pint. Donated as often as possible since, until high blood pressure put a stop to that. Until the Irish Club was shut down in Brisbane, it was donate, go to the club for a $10 pensioner meal, & a couple of pints of Guinness. Happy days.

Simple hydralics, donation should lower the high pressure.

I started back in '82 with whole blood up to around 75 donations and once I retired have been donating plasma. Total donations around 130 now.

Milkshakes, sausage rolls and cheese and biscuits make it a pleasurable experience.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

A enormous thank you to all of the people who donate blood. The blood products aren't just used in accident & Emergency and for surgery like I always thought, cancer victims are amongst the big users of blood products.

I've not ever mentioned on here, but just under 2 years ago I was diagnosed with acute myeloid Leukaemia. A super aggressive cancer

Thank you.

Well done for sharing your story and good to hear you're in remission.
I am my father's stem cell donar whom also has AML and I'm for-ever greatly appreciative of all the donors out there after seeing Dad go through bag after bag - and still currently is.
Unfortunately I can't donate here in Coober Pedy but as soon as I'm back in Adelaide, it'll be one of the first things I do.
Also, greatest respect and thanks goes out to the Leukaemia Foundation and the Royal Flying Doctors of which are both amazing organisations - funded without any help from government...
All the best and enjoy each day.
Jayden

I've donated a lot of red blood (>100), but a brief interlude as a Missionary to PNG put a stop to that for 3 years, so just did first plasma. It takes an extra hour and a half...
Gumnut