Blood Donation

My company's Loss Prevention Team (LPT) organized a blood donation campaign recently at the KL HQ.It's an annual program for the company and it has been done since 3 years ago.This year, the target of the campaign was 120 bags of blood.

I haven't done blood donation before this and I was tempted and keen to try and feel how it's like.So, I registered for the campaign and fortunately, I passed all the requirements as listed below.

My first bag of blood that I donated, more is yet to come

1. Must be healthy and feel healthy during the donation day.
2. Age from 18 to 60 years old.
3.  Must have a minimum weight of 45 kg (99.2 pounds).
4. Slept for more than 5 hours the previous day before blood donation day.
5. Not taking or under any long term medication/pills.
6. Did not take any medication e.g.: Antibiotics (for the last 7 days), Panadol / Paracetamol (for the last 1 day) before donation.
7. Must not come with empty stomach. No fasting required.
8. Not involved in any of the activities below:

a)      Homosexual

b)      Bisexual

c)       Having random sex partners and frequent sex workers

d)      Illegal intravenous drug user

e)      Have a partner of the group above.

9. Last blood donation must be more than 3 months ago.
10. For female donors;

*not pregnant

*not menstruating

*not breastfeeding a new born child    

11.   Do not donate if you have lived in Europe from 1980 till now for a period of more than 6 months or longer.

It's a good experience for me and it's not hurt at all although the needle used to suck the blood was pretty big. Initially, I admitted that I was bit scared when I saw the needle but i guess that's normal. No need to worry since the nurses know very well how to do their jobs in the safest way.

I was thinking, maybe after 3 months, I would like to donate again. It's a noble job and it can help a lot of people who are in need. Feel glad i'm able to help someone although I wouldn't know who are they.

together with Kamal donating blood