ciallkennett
Strata Poster
This stemmed from a conversation in the Happy News topic which I'm moving here to prevent clogging up the topic.
Yesterday I did a good thing which I have been meaning to do for over a year - I gave blood I also signed up to the British Bone Marrow Register which means even more to me as that's what I've wanted to do for years as I know it saves very sick people and that's just so precious. I've waited a year to do both as you have to be 18 to be on the BBMR although you can be 17 to donate blood, but I wanted to sign up on my first donation. I'm now a blood, organ and bone marrow donor.
This is an interesting article looking at the numbers of organ donors and blood donors in the UK:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18m-registered-organ-donors-105348111.html
Quick number check for people who cba to read:
- 18 million UK Organ Donors (30% of population - highest ever)
- Only 4% of the population who can give blood actually do.
Good to hear about organ donors, but the number of blood donors has dropped by about a percentage in a year. That's shocking.
There are a lot of controversies to do with donating specifically blood and bone marrow.
1) Gay males and people who have had sex with gay males are not allowed to donate because they belive they carry an increased risk of HIV/AIDS - surely this is an ancient, loosely fact-based approach to donating blood and highly discriminatory as HIV/AIDS tests are done on EVERY donor anyway.
2) Organ donorship is opt in as opposed to opt out - should it be opt out to help save more lives?
3) Lots of people have misconceptions about bone marrow donation such as thinking they inject you with needles and such, plus hardly anybody knows you can sign up while giving blood - I had to say to them I wanted to join and I'm sure I was the only person out of the hundred or so people in my session who did even though I bet many would sign up if they knew. Should there be more awareness and have this as an opt-out option when you go give blood?
And of course there is a big campaign and lots of media coverage for Alice Pyne and her campaign to get more people to join the bone marrow list.
Lots to talk about, so what do you think about being a donor of any type? Are you a donor or been thinking about signing up?
Yesterday I did a good thing which I have been meaning to do for over a year - I gave blood I also signed up to the British Bone Marrow Register which means even more to me as that's what I've wanted to do for years as I know it saves very sick people and that's just so precious. I've waited a year to do both as you have to be 18 to be on the BBMR although you can be 17 to donate blood, but I wanted to sign up on my first donation. I'm now a blood, organ and bone marrow donor.
This is an interesting article looking at the numbers of organ donors and blood donors in the UK:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18m-registered-organ-donors-105348111.html
Quick number check for people who cba to read:
- 18 million UK Organ Donors (30% of population - highest ever)
- Only 4% of the population who can give blood actually do.
Good to hear about organ donors, but the number of blood donors has dropped by about a percentage in a year. That's shocking.
There are a lot of controversies to do with donating specifically blood and bone marrow.
1) Gay males and people who have had sex with gay males are not allowed to donate because they belive they carry an increased risk of HIV/AIDS - surely this is an ancient, loosely fact-based approach to donating blood and highly discriminatory as HIV/AIDS tests are done on EVERY donor anyway.
2) Organ donorship is opt in as opposed to opt out - should it be opt out to help save more lives?
3) Lots of people have misconceptions about bone marrow donation such as thinking they inject you with needles and such, plus hardly anybody knows you can sign up while giving blood - I had to say to them I wanted to join and I'm sure I was the only person out of the hundred or so people in my session who did even though I bet many would sign up if they knew. Should there be more awareness and have this as an opt-out option when you go give blood?
And of course there is a big campaign and lots of media coverage for Alice Pyne and her campaign to get more people to join the bone marrow list.
Lots to talk about, so what do you think about being a donor of any type? Are you a donor or been thinking about signing up?