MEET A COWARD – Part Two

MEET A COWARD – Part Two

Did you read yesterday’s chapter from my projects I LOVE OUR NHS – David’s Story ? If Not the CLICK HERE.

Right now the NHS is experiencing blood short age to love care and save patient lives. 

Are you a blood donor ? 

CHECK YESTERDAY’S PAGE and read today’s page.

I have now penned 97,414 words telling my story. I will be publishing the book on 19^th May which is the fifth anniversary of Beck’s passing. Have you read her story – OUR REBEKAH A LOVE STORY FROM OUR NHS ?  Please check it out.

So on with today’s account.

Allow Me Now To Introduce You To A Former Coward:

My blood group is A-. Do you know what blood group yours is ? There are four main blood groups:– A, B, AB and O. Each group can be either RhD positive or RhD negative which means in total there are eight blood groups. I had not considered mine was a rare blood group until I started writing this paragraph, apparently 8% of blood donors are A-. Ahead of my thirty-fifth donation I had a telephone call from NHS Blood and Transplant saying there was a serious shortage of A- blood so could the system check I was fit and well and would be keeping my donation appointment.

Researching blood donation I was surprised to find that only 4% of eligible donors actually give blood. My local hospital uses 6,000 pints of blood every year to care for its patients. If a donor gives a pint of blood three times a year two thousand donors are needed to repay its debt to the blood donor system. You can find the relevant statistics for where you live.

I had a blood test last week. I studied hard for it and got A+.

Funny ha, ha !

Donate a pint of blood – donate it with a gallon of love:

Across its entire operation our NHS everything is up close and personal. Never forget the NHS does not treat its patients, it always cares for them. When you donate blood the staff care for you throughout, from the moment you walk in through the door to your exit everything is up close and personal. However, a donor walks in and the donor walks out minus one pint of blood. Nothing up close and personal about that. But it can be !

Back to NHS Blood Donation. Up close and personal, shortly after you have given blood you will receive a text message telling you where your blood was used to care for a patient. You will, of course, never learn the identity of the patient who received your blood.

I have devised my own system which I call: DONATE A PINT OF BLOOD – DONATE IT WITH A GALLON OF LOVE. This is very new within my life but it is something I now use every time I give blood. Allow me to share my little project and invite you to do something similar within your own donation diary.

When I lay back in the chair and the blood starts to flow I close my eyes and try to shut everything out as I imagine the person who will receive my blood. I don’t try to visualise if that is a man, a woman or child but to think of a friend who is need of my help. As the blood, one pint of it, is flowing out of my arm I make my body pump one gallon of love from my heart to the patient who within a short space of time will have my blood being pumped through their body by their heart.

When I receive that text message from NHS Blood and Transplant telling me which hospital used my blood I go on-line and find out as much as I can about the hospital and look as photographs on the hospital’s website. I then enter everything into a diary.

As I explained this is something new for me but here are my diary entries so far.

DONATION THIRTY-THREE: Thursday 28^th October 2021 1.45pm – Donated at Christ The Cornerstone Central Milton Keynes – BLOOD RECEIVED AT ROYAL LONDON HOSPITAL

The Royal London Hospital is a large teaching hospital in Whitechapel in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is part of Barts Health NHS Trust. The Royal London provides district general hospital services for the City and Tower Hamlets and specialist tertiary care services for patients from across London and elsewhere. There are 845 beds, 110 wards and 26 operating theatres at the Royal London Hospital. The new building opened in February 2012.

The Royal London was founded in September 1740 and was originally named the London Infirmary. The name changed to the London Hospital in 1748, and in 1990 to the Royal London Hospital. The first patients were treated at a house in Featherstone Street, Moorfields. In May 1741, the hospital moved to Prescot Street, and remained there until 1757 when it moved to its current location on the south side of Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets..

The hospital's roof-top helipad is the London’s Air Ambulance operating base. The helicopter is stored overnight at RAF Northolt.

DONATION THIRTY-FOUR: Thursday 20^th January 2022 1.45pm – Donated at Christ The Cornerstone Central Milton Keynes – BLOOD RECEIVED AT HAMMERSMITH HOSPITAL LONDON

Hammersmith Hospital, formerly the Military Orthopaedic Hospital, and later the Special

Surgical Hospital, is a major teaching hospital in White City, West London. It is part of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and is associated with the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine. Confusingly the hospital is not in Hammersmith but is located in White City adjacent to Wormwood Scrubs and East Acton.

DONATION THIRTY-FIVE Wednesday 20^th  2022 1.30pm – Donated at Christ The Cornerstone Central Milton Keynes – BLOOD RECEIVED AT - I am awaiting information from the NHS Blood & Transplant team.

I then write to the hospital sending SMILE cards to front-line staff thanking them for not treating patients but caring for them with love.

This is very important to me so as I here in this little book invite you to come up with something yourself which enables you to donate a gallon of love alongside your pint of blood.