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Monday, 2 July 2012

Give Blood, Give life, Give us a pint!


Hi, my name is Clara Smith and I would like to thank you for taking time to read my blog, and hopefully writing back some comments and answering my questionnaire. I hope after reading this you will consider donating blood now or in the future

My organisation that I have chosen is the Give Blood Foundation. The Give Blood Foundation is an organisation where they encourage people to donate blood for a good cause. Although the NHS is funded, it’s not money they need it’s blood, the gift of life. Only 4% of our population donate blood and the other 96% rely on them. That's only 4 out of a possible 100 people. That's how few people who could give blood actually do.

Giving blood couldn't be simpler. It’s quick, simple and safe. Most people can give blood and if you are generally healthy and between the ages of 17 and 65 you could start giving blood today!
The need for blood never stops as every minute of the day someone somewhere needs blood. There are many reasons why people need blood including; suffering internal bleeding due to a car crash, losing blood during childbirth, to help treat serious diseases like cancer, and for planned operations such as hip or knee replacement. Also a lot of people require regular blood transfusions to live due to 
various blood disorders.

I have chosen a story which I think is very persuasive and informs people really well about how serious this cause is. This is a story about someone who needed a lot of blood donated to him and the people who saved his life.

 And if you don’t no-one else will!

 

It began like any normal day for 15-year-old Luke Craig. He'd gone to a family christening, then on to a party. But returning home he was involved in a horrific car crash. Luke remembers nothing.

Luke was rushed to the nearest casualty department. They discovered that although Luke's seatbelt had saved him from flying through the windscreen of the car, the huge forces in the crash had caused serious internal injuries including a tear in his heart. He was bleeding internally, and needed more and more blood to replace the loss. They would have to operate immediately if Luke was to have any chance of surviving.

The hospital managed to contact a specialist heart surgeon in nearby Manchester, but Luke was so ill there was no time to wait for him to arrive. Taking instructions over the telephone, surgeons managed to repair the tear in Luke's heart. Two days after his operation and in a more stable condition, Luke was transferred to Alder Hey Children's Hospital, where he spent two weeks on a ventilator before he could breathe for himself.

Amazingly, just two weeks after coming off the ventilator, Luke's condition had improved and he was well enough to go home. He is gradually regaining his fitness. Doctors expect him to make a full recovery. To the blood donors who donated the 24 pints he needed to get through his operation, Luke will be eternally grateful. 

You only donate one pint of blood but Luke needed 24 pints. I hope you will consider this and donate now or in the future.

Please don’t just leave one person to do it, there are never too many to donate blood  there are too few. Don’t just do it for your relatives do it for everyone. It only takes an hour of your time to save someone’s life

Blood cannot be maufactured only given as a gift!

This is the website for my charity                http://blood.co.uk/

Would you please fill out my questionaire?

  1. Did you know anything about the Give blood organisation before you read  this?
  2. Please could you tell me where you live?
  3. Will you now consider donating today or in the future?
  4. Has this blog made you think twice about blood donating?
  5. If you are not eligible to be a donor for any reason would you now try to persuade others to donate?
 
Thank you for reading my blog and I hope you have time to comment and answer my questions!