Tuesday the 3^rd of February. Today was the day. I had signed up to give blood 2 or 3 weeks ago, and the day had finally arrived. I was so nervous, yet strangely excited. I hadn’t told anyone of my family and had just mentioned it to a few friends purely because I was scared that I would chicken out before it could happen. Yet the day was here!

Now, any one of my close family or friends will tell you that I am terrible with needles, injections, blood etc. etc. and often tend to see, what we have dubbed in my family, the ’black spots’ whenever I have to get any of the aforementioned. Quite frankly, it’s getting to the point now where I think my Doctor dreads having to see me as I tend to just nervously chatter at him or the nurse before going faint. I always walk in with the greatest intentions- swaggering in thinking ‘Needles? Blood test? No problem!’ and yet, the same thing happens every single time.

At this point, you’re probably thinking- Why on Earth are you going to give blood if this is such an ordeal? The answer was pretty straightforward- because I can.

There are so many reasons as to why you should, if you can, donate blood. I could easily list off to you the reasons on the Give Blood website (www.blood.co.uk), but for me- my opinion is that everyone could need a hand or a lifeline at some point in their life, and giving blood costs nothing but is worth so much to someone in need. No matter how horrible I feel about blood, the thought that I could help someone made me feel 100 times better and stronger (This same opinion holds for why I am a registered organ donor).

Having registered online for my appointment, I had been posted the relevant paperwork to hand in upon arrival. Even if you hadn’t registered online, they were open to walk-ins and the form to fill in was pretty straightforward. One of the nurses promptly called my name and I was sat down to go through all the various countries I had lived in as I had indicated on my form that I was born in the Caribbean. As you can imagine, this took a while. After this, the nurse pricked my finger for some tests and it was at this point I told the nurse that I wasn’t very good with blood/needles etc. and made the mistake of turning my head to face her as I spoke, and accidentally saw the drop of blood on my finger.

Just as I was beginning to feel a little queasy, the nurse told me to go and sit down in the waiting area and wait for my name to be called. I think I must have looked rather pale, as she asked if I was alright and proceeded to get me some lemon cordial (or as they call it here, squash!). If there was any point during this session that I thought I would quit, it was now. I was in a cold sweat, my heart was racing and I was feeling rather faint! As I began to talk myself out of it all, a male nurse called ‘Ms. Pirie…’. I kept quiet. ‘Miss Kayleigh Pirie?’ he said a little louder, and all of a sudden I found myself saying ‘Yep, right here!’.

I found myself beginning to nervously chat and was instantly greeted by some other nurses who must have caught on and instantly began to reassure me. I must say, all the staff were so friendly and really helped make me feel at ease. Simple kind words really helped, and once I was sat in the chair, I truly felt fine. After 30 seconds of disinfecting my arm, the needle was in and I was doing the foot paddle exercises and pumping my fist. As I scrolled through my Facebook feed, 5 to 10 minutes passed and a tune played from my chair to tell the nurses it was done. The nurse came over and asked if I was alright, removed the needle and I thought ‘That wasn’t so bad’, and then it began again. The black spots were back. I alerted the nurse I wasn’t feeling too great, and she came over with some lemon cordial and biscuits- bless! She even joked with me that I had unicorn blood (I am O- so am a universal donor, and blood supplies of O- blood are always in demand!) and it really did help to get my mind relaxed!

Some time passed and the nurse slowly lifted the chair from a laying position into a seated spot, the nurse made sure I felt alright and directed me to the drinks, biscuits, sweets and crisps. What a great reward! After a further 5 minutes of sitting down relaxing, munching and feeling great about doing my good deed- I tottered back to work and went back to my day! Wearing my ‘I donated blood, please be nice to me’ sticker, everyone at work congratulated me and I felt really proud.

I really would recommend and encourage anyone who can give blood, to sign up, register and do it. If I can do, so can you! I was lucky enough to have Rachel from work come along too and that really helped as she was so reassuring and sweet.

Thanks to all the nurses who dealt with me today and I even got a tweet from @GiveBloodNHS to say thank you!

One thing off the New Years Resolutions ticked, and I’m daring enough to say that I think I will donate again in the future!

Until next time x