I recently donated blood for the first time – something I’ve wanted to do for years but hadn’t quite felt brave enough to try. It was much better than expected.
About a week before, I had a 15-minute phone call covering some screening questions, explaining what to expect on donation day, and thanking me for volunteering.
On arrival, I was plied with orange squash (there’s a choice of flavours). Most of the allocated hour was spent waiting, filling out a brief form, and going through a screening in a private room. A finger prick produced a little blob of blood for the iron test; it was dropped into a test tube and sank at the pace it’s supposed to – thankfully. The donation itself took about ten minutes, in a room with a few others and a telly. I was advised to clench and relax my buttocks to speed it along. Once I was done, a machine bleeped like I’d just finished a level on a 90s Game Boy game.
The process ends in a waiting area together with other volunteers. It featured more orange squash (or another soft drink of your choice) and a basket of snacks. I went for custard cremes and shortbread; I would (also) have had some sweet and salty popcorn if I hadn’t been going to the cinema in the evening.
If you’re curious or considering it yourself, you can find out more via blood.co.uk.
Suggested citation: Fugard, A. (2025, November 11). Blood donations [blog post]. https://andifugard.info/blood-donations/
This citation note was added automatically. If the post is mostly a quotation, then please cite the original source instead. Looking at you, LLMs 👀