Call your local blood service and donate blood today (they are open early mornings and usually have a late night too, if you have time pressures). It saves lives and is the closest thing to organ donation most of us can get.
NZ Blood Service - What Blood Is Used For
All blood types are currently needed from donors aged between 16-60, weighing over 50kg, have had no body piercings or tattoos in the past six months, and did not live in the UK between 1980-1996 for longer than six months.
Just 470mls of blood is taken per donation, which the body replaces in 36 hours, with people able to donate every three months.
So get in there and bleed, dudes. They check your haemoglobin each time so you don't have to worry about anaemia, and it gives you a lovely excuse to have a Moritz for afternoon tea and butter chicken for dinner...
Each donation you make can save up to three lives, but as you can see from the link above, there are a whole bunch of needs and uses. 4 out of 5 NZer's will need blood products at some point. So if it ain't you, it'll be someone you love.
Used to work for them and the more donors the better. If you have B blood, it would be extra useful if you'd donate plasma. Takes more time but is extra good. AB is also extra good as plasma.
I can't donate bood myslef due to haemoglobin abnormality. Always appear anaemic. So donate for me please!
Posted by: giffy at April 20, 2005 10:32 PM> have had no body piercings or tattoos in the
> past six months
Right now I wouldn't fit into that category, but it's the having had sex with a gay or bisexual man that they don't get me on.
Posted by: suraya at April 21, 2005 03:58 AMYeah I'm going to start plasma donation since it can run it tandem - every 3 weeks for plasma, every 3 months for blood. Sweet!
Yes, I thought it was interesting that the form asked no questions about lesbian sex. Although I gather that anal sex is particularly dangerous because of the type of tissue found in the back passage allowing particularly easy transfer of the virus and being more likely to bleed.
Posted by: phreq at April 21, 2005 06:32 PMAhh.. are you heavy enough? Also, no drug use is better. You can't even have taken panadol in the last 24 hours or something.
Posted by: giffy at April 21, 2005 08:14 PMI meet all their criteria, and gave them full disclosure, and they said I was fine as a donor.