I had another nice note (they all are actually) enclosing some money a month or so ago with an apology it wasn’t more. Don’t be, that’s how we’ve got this far with all the loose change, odds and sods and small donations, and it is something to be proud of not sorry! Still if you want to give something and don’t have any spare cash and don’t feel able to rattle tins or run an event, pop along to the nearest Blood Donation Centre, they can always do with more, and more, and more! 

Do you know that the UK hospitals and clinics etc. get through an amazing 10,000 units per day, that’s 10,000 armfuls, or a whole years armfuls for 5,000 people every single day, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year and the demand is rising! 

Last year they collected 2.5 million units from about 1.9 million donors. Trouble is 1.9 million donors are only about 6% of the population giving 2 or 3 times a year. The other problem is that a couple of the ingredients in blood don’t have a very long shelf life. Red cells only last about 35 days (they carry oxygen around your body) and platelets (clotting agent) a mere 5 days before they are past their sell-by date. It also means that with the demand as it is there is only ever about 4 days stock at any one time, so the whole service runs pretty close to the bone (no pun intended!). 

It doesn’t need much of an imagination to realise that the return to health and longevity of the many is wholly dependant on the few Good Samaritans amongst us, and that many quite straightforward life-saving medical techniques and cures we take for granted would be almost impossible without their generosity. The reward? A cup of tea and a biscuit and the quiet satisfaction of knowing that each unit will help save a life! 

So the next time you want to apologise for not giving more, if you are one of the 94 in a 100 you can you know, much, much more and it won’t cost you a penny! I’ll bet it’ll do wonders for your self-esteem too! (Statistics courtesy of www.blood.co.uk)