Could this be the best Christmas gift of all? Very close to all of us is someone who’s done something very special today. David Learner rolls up his sleeves, takes a deep breath and checks in for his local session...
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ow did it happen? At what point did this inner voice shout that I had 8 pints of the stuff sloshing round me and that I probably didn’t need all of them? As it happens, I do remember. His name was Dave and he breezed through the office I was working in at the time and said he was heading down to the local blood donor session – and did anyone fancy coming? Dave wasn’t hassling, but I must’ve been in a particularly good mood because I simply said yes. Well, something did – that tiny conscience that slaps you about occasionally and says you have nothing to lose and you won’t die as a result of going with Dave. Maybe I felt bad because I hadn’t joined in the Fantasy Football league he was organising. Within minutes we were off and I was hearing Tony Hancock’s realisation that he was about to give up something very close to him. In his classic sketch, he asks how much blood he’ll be losing. “A pint? Why, that's very nearly an armful!” he replies. In 1628, William Harvey (a leading physician of the day) demonstrated that blood circulated freely round the body. Less than 40 years later, the first
KLmagazine November 2012
successful blood transfusion took place (admittedly in an animal) but it proved it could be done. Fast forward to 1921 when members of the British Red Cross Society decided to give blood voluntarily, and to 1996 when the National Blood Service celebrated 50 years of life-saving work, probably with a cup of tea and a biscuit. None of this I knew as I entered the death zone. Sorry, I mean the genteel surroundings of the church hall I didn’t know existed. There was a sign for a Baby Club. At least I knew now where I needed to come for a baby. And yes, I was sweating. I was in Outpatients for goodness sake, or that’s what it looked like. People laid out on stretchers, gently waggling fingers as tubes coursed out from half a dozen arms, other people in starched uniforms, some more drinking tea. But suddenly this wasn’t hell. I watched the smiles and chatter and I allowed them to envelop me like chocolate. It appeared I may after all be doing THE RIGHT THING. If you’ve never donated blood, take it from Billy Blooddrop here that you have nothing to fear and much to gain. I’ll never know the path that my 470ml took after it departed my hapless body
and was carted off for testing and testing (and testing again) before its deft redirection into someone who needed it far more than me. I’ll never meet them and almost certainly they’ll never know that we don’t share the same taste in music – but I’ve had the tea, and the biscuit, and gained the freedom to know that a simple selfless act has allowed someone else to live. The blood website at (unsuprisingly enough) www.blood.co.uk is one of the most comprehensive yet easy to navigate sites you’ll ever browse. In KL magazine country there are at least 15 places you can part with your pint – and signing up is as easy as dribbling. I’ll see you down there.
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