In 2018, 830,000 people gave blood in England alone. Incredible numbers at face value, right? But in the grand scheme of things, that’s just less than 2% of the entire population who are donating. Giving blood is one of the easiest ways to make a huge difference in a person’s life, but I find that it’s often forgotten about and certainly not discussed enough in our day-to-day lives, particularly for students.
For many of us, we’re at our prime health and should be helping others as much as we can. Blood donations from students is at a significantly low amount, with over 81% of individuals aged 17-24 admitting to never donating blood.
But with that, how can you blame us? I don’t know about you, but I was never taught about the benefits of blood donation and how necessary it is for as many people to donate in school.
The discussion of blood donation isn’t incorporated into our everyday lives
The discussion of blood donation isn’t incorporated into our everyday lives and isn’t really touched upon in mainstream media, so how are we supposed to know about how vital this issue is or how necessary it is for as many of us to donate?
I understand that it’s super easy to dismiss giving blood. ‘I hate needles’, ‘blood makes me feel sick’, the list is endless, and these reasons not to donate are 100% valid.
You may think that donating blood is gross, and admittedly I found the first couple of times not the most pleasant experiences. Despite this, I can’t help but constantly remind myself every time I donate that what I’m doing is much bigger than me feeling slightly grossed out every once in a while. Donating blood needs to become a habit for the majority rather than a chore and should be incorporated into many more lives than it is right now.
20 minutes of your time every 6 months could help save a life, isn’t that incredible?
Every single year, hundreds of thousands of people are given blood transfusions to help support recovery or even help people survive. 20 minutes of your time every 6 months could help save a life, isn’t that incredible?
Getting Involved:
Donating blood is such an easy and accessible process for most. To register, all you need to do is go to blood.co.uk and click register! It’s honestly that simple.
From then, you will be asked to read through the criteria in which you need to fit to donate blood, for the wellbeing of both yourself and the patients the blood would be donated to. If all is well, you’ll be registered and then you can book your first appointment! It’s such an easy process and such a nice way to take part in some sort of volunteering every once in a while.
Giving blood isn’t scary and they give you treats. #giveblood #BloodyHalloween #ITV2BloodSquad pic.twitter.com/5Z5cEgdunx
— Ruth Edwards (@roodle_pipski) October 31, 2019
In Nottingham, the local Blood Donation Centre is found right near the Victoria Centre Intu; Trinity Square, Church St, Nottingham NG1 4BR, and if you do book an appointment, you’ll be in and out of there in 20-30 minutes max!
As well as this, after you have donated blood, you’ll receive notifications and emails telling you where your blood goes and how you’ve helped. The process is entirely personalized and makes you feel that ounce of ‘wow, I did something good today’.
The process of donating blood can be a scary one. It’s normal for humans to be fearful of needles but with that, it’s bigger than us. It can save lives. That, in itself, is a reason to get involved as soon as you can!
Jess Smith
Featured image courtesy of Howard Lake via Flickr. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
In article image courtesy of @roodle_pipski via Twitter. No changes were made to this image.
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This is really important! A true act of love