Gave my a pint last night, and the blood service are saying the blood banks are really low (like most banks)at the moment. So go give a pint, you never know when you might need it back!

Posted 12 years ago

Went a couple of weeks ago as i heard stock levels were on ‘amber alert’ apparently.

Posted 12 years ago

I’m waiting for my next invitation… got turned away last time because I was still in physio for my broken pelvis. I tried to tell them I was fine, but they weren’t having any of it – they wanted me to keep my blood and get healthy.

Giving blood is great… go do it everyone!

Dave

Posted 12 years ago

they need your organs too

but they can wait for mine

Posted 12 years ago

Time for another government bail-out?

Maybe prisoners should be allowed to give blood in exchange for prison luxuries (fags, soap etc?)

Posted 12 years ago

Got my appointment this afternoon – in Tescos car park for a change!

Posted 12 years ago

[daily mail]

maybe prisoners should be MADE to give blood because they committed a CRIME

[daily mail]

Posted 12 years ago

I’m not allowed to give blood for a whole year because I had sex with a woman who’d spent some time in Africa 🙁

Posted 12 years ago

Maybe prisoners should be allowed to give blood in exchange for prison luxuries (fags, soap etc?)

Interesting idea. However the things that excleude you from giving you blood are many. I’d forgotten about SFB’s ‘girl from africa’ one.

Also use of class a drugs (in case you got so off your chops you didn’t realise you had unprotected sex), intravenous drug use and dodgy home made tattoos are also no-no’s as this makes the likelihood that you have blood borne viruses too high to be worth bothering to take a pint and test it etc. Unfortunately this would exclude the majority of the UK prison population.

Posted 12 years ago

I’m not allowed to give blood for a whole year because I had sex with a woman who’d spent some time in Africa

At least you’re only stopped from giving blood, she’s still having counselling…

Posted 12 years ago

Went for the first time on Wednesday. Uncomfortable, but not unpleasant. Will be going again when they invite me.

Posted 12 years ago

i’m on the list to give platelets, waiting for an appointment for further tests.

Posted 12 years ago

Going to have another go at giving blood. I had malaria 12 years ago, but have never had a recurrence. When i tried back in the day I was told “no way”.

Apparently, my dicky ticker means I can’t go on the bone marrow register, which is just such a load of c*ck. If I’m allowed to max it out on a bike, then I should be allowed to go onto a register to help ill people.

Posted 12 years ago

If it wasn’t so bloody (sorry) difficult to donate in the Oxford area, they’d see a lot more people. In Leeds you simply ambled down to the centre when you’d forgotten your lunch money and wanted a free snack. They sucked your blood, you ate a couple of choccy bars and went on your way.

Unfortunately, Oxford run a mobile service. Went to one of these once, but the 3 hour wait has put me off going again. On top of that, I have to wait 24 hours after donating before going back to work, so my schedule and theirs has to mesh. Not worth the hassle, which is a real shame.

Posted 12 years ago

Will give again just as soon as the ‘new’ venue is sorted as the old one was too small. Could probably give a pint now from my desk if they’d come to take it.

Posted 12 years ago

As a gay bloke they won’t take mine. Obviously I’m riddled with AIDS or something.

Strangely though they *do* want me to donate my organs. I’ve told them they can have both blood and organs or neither. I don’t understand why blood is bad but organs (swimming in the stuff) is fine…

Posted 12 years ago

Adam, you can be on the donor list but if they found you to be HIV positive I dont think they’d actually take your organs. Much like if you were down to have them taken and you died by poisoning etc.

I gave it once, they “took it” too fast (apparently a pint in 3 minutes is too fast, the little machine was beeping away to itself a lot?) and I was wiped out, properly went into shock and was useless at work for about 2 days. I’d go back again but it has made me find excuses a bit quicker!

Posted 12 years ago

Same in Manchester. It’s a pain in the arse to give blood. Make an appointment blah blah blah.

Posted 12 years ago

Ta for this been meaning to do it for ages.

Got my first session on 10th February

Blood Service Appointment

Posted 12 years ago

I have low blood pressure…they don’t want me either

Posted 12 years ago

I give as often as they let me, next date I can is mid feb.

My mum had full transfusion after having me and if the blood wasn’t available then she wouldn’t be here so i think its only fair!

My girlfriend isn’t allowed though because she is under the mim weight limit.

Posted 12 years ago

I started giving blood ten years ago, after my Wife and my first daughters lives were saved because of blood donors.

A big thank you to all of you who do donate 🙂

Quick question, platelets, keep getting asked to become a platelet donor, anyone here given platelets, how do it differ from a normal donation?

Ta.

Posted 12 years ago

As a gay bloke they won’t take mine

Forking Hill, why ever not?

Is that for real? WTF can’t they take blood from a Gay man? What about a Lesbian?

I can’t get my head around that. Do Gay people have different blood to Straight people, or something?

That’s just ridiculous.

Posted 12 years ago

Jesus Sh1t the Bed, I can’t believe this:

“You should never give blood if:

1 You have ever had syphilis, HTVL (Human T – lymphotorpic virus), hepatitis B or C or think you may have hepatitis now
2 You’re a man who’s had sex with another man, even safe sex using a condom.

For more information on why men who have sex with men cannot give blood click here
3 You’ve ever worked as a prostitute.
4 You’ve ever injected yourself with drugs – even once.

You should not give blood for 12 months after sex with:

1 A man who has had sex with another man (if you’re a female).
2 A prostitute.
3 Anyone who has ever injected themselves with drugs.
4 Anyone with haemophilia or a related blood clotting disorder who has received clotting factor concentrates.
5 Anyone of any race who has been sexually active in parts of the world where AIDS/HIV is very common. This includes countries in Africa.”

From The National Blood Service.

Can someone tell me if there is any scientific or medical reason for this, because it makes absolutely no sense, to me.

Posted 12 years ago

Can you imagine the consequences of HIV positive blood in the national supply?

Which probably goes some way to explain why they may be a little paranoid…

Posted 12 years ago

there’s a big list of exclusions

man having sex with a man
having a blood transfusion after 1980
history of CJD in family
etc etc

Posted 12 years ago

Ski, I thought you gave blood and they then took the platelets from that blood…. Could be wrong about that though. My Mum had bags of the stuff when she was being treated for Leukemia and thats one of the reasons that I give, like I said you never know when you might need it.

Posted 12 years ago

THEY SCREEN ALL BLOOD ANYWAY!!!!!!!!

No, seriously,WTF are Gay men excluded? All I can think of, is possibly some stupid **** thing about someone might not want too have the blood of a Gay man given to them. Personally, I’d willingly have the babies of any person who’s blood was used to save my life.

This is something that devalues Gay men in our society. That is **** wrong. Disgusting.

Posted 12 years ago

Can you imagine the consequences of HIV positive blood in the national supply?

it’s not a ‘supply’ like a tank. Individual units are stored as such and tracked till used (typically within a week I believe). Units are only mixed within a patient.

For platelet donation, your blood is run through a filter and then returned to your body. Which is why I won’t do it

Posted 12 years ago

THEY SCREEN ALL BLOOD ANYWAY!!!!!!!!

but HIV is difficult to detect, with typically 3 months from exposure to detectable antibodies

Posted 12 years ago

I Have been considering giving blood for a while now. Partially because I have had 2 life saving operations to remove a brain tumour…so would really like to give something back.
However would I be allowed??, due to my condition?
I am in better shape now than I ever have been due to a new zest for life.

Posted 12 years ago

THEY SCREEN ALL BLOOD ANYWAY!!!!!!!!

No, seriously,WTF are Gay men excluded? All I can think of, is possibly some stupid **** thing about someone might not want too have the blood of a Gay man given to them. Personally, I’d willingly have the babies of any person who’s blood was used to save my life.

This is something that devalues Gay men in our society. That is **** wrong. Disgusting.

Hmmm how dare they stop people who are statistically* (AFIAK) massively more likely to suffer from a disease that is very hard to detect in its early stages, yet still infectious. Stupid eh.

*41% of new HIV diagnoses in 2007 were among men who have sex with men. Thats a large percentage for the very small (3-5%) percentage of “gays”.

The majority of the remaining were not gay, but mostly through contact with African continents.

So you can see their methodology.

Posted 12 years ago

This is something that devalues Gay men in our society. That is **** wrong. Disgusting.

They’re not excluding gay men because they are gay, they’re excluding them because of the higher risk of blood infection because of the sexual activities some gay men participate in.

Posted 12 years ago

“For more information on why men who have sex with men cannot give blood click here”

Go on Bra, have a click. By all means get back to us if you’re still determined to be outraged.

Posted 12 years ago

So, basically, they’re saying that gay men are more likely to be infected with HIV? Eh?

Now, I’m not an expert on this, the closest is that I worked on a Youth Education project around AIDS/HIV and Drugs Issues, a few year ago. And learned that a lot of the ‘AIDS is Gay Plague’ stuff was in fact sensationalised phobic bull.

If Heterosexual people, who can just as easily transmit/receive the virus, can give blood, then so should Gay Men.

Posted 12 years ago

I think if you have been a recipient of blood donations rusty, that counts you out sadly.

Posted 12 years ago

cant give blood because i had a transfusion several years back ,thay said that there is a possibility that i could have mad cows diseases.when i asked them how could you fined that out for me thay said only when you r dead thay can run the tests to fined out ❗

Posted 12 years ago

Ok, read that, but it still makes little sense.

People can lie about all sorts.

‘Have you ever injected drugs?’
‘No (lie)’
‘Ok then’.

So, the blood Service claim there is no risk of contracting AIDS/HIV from receiving a blood transfusion, then why these rules?

Posted 12 years ago

Rudeboy, check the stats above, from the terrence higgins trust. They’re bannign anyone likely to have aids, not anyone who’s gay. Get over it.

And why the rules – because they hope that they screen out the people who just werent aware they were a risk. This vastly improves the blood screening accuracy, knowing that most people are not likely to have lied.

Posted 12 years ago

If you watch the blood stock tube on the national blood service website it’s always going up and down but never gets any worse or better.

hmmmm…

Posted 12 years ago