Australia on average needs 27,000 blood donations every week.
On top of this, the busy christmas period means the red-cross is working twice as hard
to ensure we have ample supply over the long summer holidays.
As long as you are fit, healthy and above a certain weight
donating blood is relatively painless.
You complete a donor questionnaire as well as an interview
(basically to suss out lifestyle habits and your general health.)
And you are ready for the blood donation.
It's actually not as scary as it sounds,
I felt a small pinch but it was on the whole a painless experience.
My main advice is if you are light headed like me
DO NOT LOOK AT THE BLOOD BAG OR THE NEEDLE.
(I'm serious, you will start palpitating...in fact maybe it would be better
if you close your eyes and think of the free cookies in the other room.)
Giving blood only takes 5-10 minutes but could end up saving a lot of people.
1 in 3 people will need blood but only 1 in 30 people currently give blood donations.
Donate blood,
who knows whose life you'll save. read more