AtoZChallenge Saves3Lives

For the last few AtoZChallenge blog posts I have been sharing a little about me and my family history projects. We are often being told to share the research we have found about our ancestors so that future generations do not have to retrace the steps. We need to share a bit about our lives to answer future researchers questions. These will probably be questions similar to the ones we wonder about, such as, where did they live? How did they spend their time? What was important to them? And loads more so in this post I am Sharing about Saves3Lives, something that I do as it is important to me.

The thing that is important to me is making blood donations. I started to do this in my teen years and have done it on and off ever since. A few years ago I started donating blood again and the Red Cross has been counting. I got given a badge at one donation as I had done 10 donations since I started donating again. Thanks to the great team at Maroochydore for being so nice.

Owing to the fact that some folks mentioned that they disliked the needle in the last blood donation pic, this time the “after the event bandage photo”. Boring.

When the State Origin game was being played one donation I received a maroon bandage . For my international friends, the bandage colour indicated which state you were supporting. “The State of Origin series is the annual best-of-three rugby league football match series between two Australian state representative sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons.”¹

The State of Origin games is serious stuff. Serious enough to warrant coloured bandages. Maroon is the colour for the State of Queensland. I assume those donating in NSW got a pale, washed out blue bandage like their team. Did I say that mean thing? Sport can be divisive so let’s move on as I don’t want to get into a statistics battle about Queensland winning many of the 3 game series. OK, to be clear, since 2006, Queensland has won every series except in 2014 and 2018.

The “needle in the arm”

Time to donate again. Did you know that only 2% of donations are used for trauma including road accidents? The highest use is cancer and blood diseases at 34%. You or your family might need blood.

I heard someone say they would not give blood as it mainly goes to drunk people in car accidents and they do not deserve it. This is not true. If you wish to check out more details on how the blood is used then read the How Your Blood is Used page at the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.

Other interesting bloody details:

We donate blood for free in Australia.
Platelets have a shelf-life of just five days so no stockpiling.
1 in 3 Australians will need blood in their lifetime.
But only 1 in 30 currently donate.
New South Wales and Queensland make up over half (52 per cent) the nation’s blood donations.² (The states that play State of Origin Football.)
You can donate after a flu vaccine.
Many medicines do not restrict you from donating.
One blood donation is needed every 24 seconds in Australia.

Saves3Lives: Interested in donating?

While donating is not for everyone if you meet the criteria and are willing to donate then typically your blood helps one or more people within a few days of the donation. If you don’t like reading through the eligibility details online then phone 13 14 95 (Australia) and a kind person on the phone will work through it with you. After your first donation, you can book online or use the app. Personally, I like the phone as it is easy to ask any questions and report travel, recent dentist or doctor visits or other factors that might mean you need to wait for a little until you can donate next. Remembering that it Saves3Lives helps me remember to donate.

After donating

There are two things that happen after donating. First is they have a great collection of food and drinks for a little after the donation rest and feed. See the tasty muesli bar and chocolate frog in the top image. Fruit cake is one of my favourites. It’s also an ideal time to do an Instagram post if you are avoiding the “bloody” pics. Next, about a week later, I get a text message to confirm the hospital where my blood has gone to save lives. From memory, I think one time they said it helped 3 people.

If you want to follow me on Instagram my handle is TravelGenee. Most of the posts are about family history, #GenealogyPhotoADay, genealogy conferences, travels, my sports teams and non-bloody things. For the sake of saving lives sometimes I get a bit bloodthirsty. Or you can read more 2019 AtoZChallenge posts.

Have you ever donated? Saved3Lives? Or had a friend or family member or you needed blood? No details or patient names, please, to protect privacy.

Thanks in anticipation if you share this Saves3Lives post on social media:

2 thoughts on “AtoZChallenge Saves3Lives – I’ll take your blood!”

I really liked your witticisms and PR on this post. I donated once a bazillion years ago and didn’t go round again, even though my social conscience would normally kick in, as it did reading your post (halo alert…ha ha). I even read all the FAQs and that conscience can now rest easy, thanks to age and PNG.
I thought it was very interesting that there are restrictions even if you’ve been on a cruise to malarial countries.

Fran Kitto says:

April 22, 2019 at 11:26 pm

I thought it was interesting they recently increased the starting age. And I really just go for the free food! As you would expect! Yes, my PR was a bit over the top.

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AtoZChallenge Saves3Lives – I’ll take your blood!