Skip to content
{ 18 10 2010 }

Giving blood

The blood donation nurses visited work today for their regular donor session in our conference room. I went along as usual to give blood, but it felt much more poignant this time. I couldn’t help remembering how much better Chris felt after his two blood transfusions. Each one gave him so much more energy – it made a remarkable difference. I suppose in the past I’ve always thought of my blood going to trauma patients or during surgery. I had never considered it being such an effective part of cancer treatment. I don’t enjoy giving blood; in fact I hate it. But I’ve always thought of it as my “civic duty” and gritted my teeth. I suspect I’ll be much more enthusiastic in future.

Posted by Gillian on Monday, October 18, 2010, at 9:45 pm. Filed under cancer. Follow any responses to this post with its comments RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

{ 5 } Comments

  1. CattusMagnus | 19 October 2010 at 7:55 am | Permalink

    Giving blood is a wonderful thing. I think my whole family has taken about a dozen pints so it’s up to me to replace it all. Only 8 more pints to go! My grandfather had several transfusions when he was dying of cancer and it improved his quality of life enormously. I’m glad it helped Chris too.

  2. russiandoll | 19 October 2010 at 7:40 pm | Permalink

    I’m going to donate tomorrow – I’ll think of Chris too. Good for you for going out of ‘civic duty’ despite hating it in the past! I don’t mind it at all – it’s a fine opportunity for a lie down followed by some lemon squash and biscuits in my book, plus someone else gets, hopefully, the kind of benefit Chris had. Win-win.

  3. PaulD | 20 October 2010 at 5:49 pm | Permalink

    Last time I gave blood they moaned about it not coming out fast enough !

  4. JoanLil | 22 October 2010 at 3:41 am | Permalink

    I started giving blood when my brother in law was dying and needed several transfusions. Despite having to stop for two lots of six months when I suffered full thickness burns and had to wait to heal, and when I had a skin cancer removed, I managed to donate more than fifty times. It was most upsetting for me to have to cancel the appointment I had to give blood three days after I was diagnosed with advanced colon cancer. If you are healthy, giving blood is a good way to help others in need. I haven’t needed a transfusion yet, but I will be so grateful to the donor if I do.

  5. Gillian | 23 October 2010 at 12:21 pm | Permalink

    Fifty times! Wow! I’ve managed just ten so far. But I do so agree with you – if one is healthy it is such a good way to give something back to society.