Donating blood

It all started when I was an 18 years old kid. I was servicing my army time in national service. At that time, I was just posted to a team within an air force base after my 6 months of basic military and signalmen specialist training . During my first day there (I remember vividly that it was a Saturday. It was a half day working session and we knocked off work at 12 noon), a jeep collided with the motorbike our sergeant was riding within the camp. He was badly injured and was on medical leave thereafter for a number of years. After the accident, our team decided to do our part. The group of us organized a trip to the general hospital blood bank department to donate our blood for his numerous operations. I continued to donate every 3 months after that first time whenever I can, till I left the army.

A few years back, I started this process again as there was a blood donation center near my office. I could simply drop by during lunch time to do it. To date, I think I have contributed a total of 25 times.

As I run half marathons every 3 months, I try to time the blood donation a week before the run. Psychologically, I feel that this gives me a boost before the run as the body replaces its lost blood with a new supply after the donation. I remember reading about Russian athletes extracting their own blood during off-peak season and then pumping it back to their body just before a crucial run to get better results…. 🙂

Actually, the main reason for me to donate : To provide a history of my contributions to the blood bank. This comes in handy in the future if a friend or a loved one may require it. The blood bank requires the patient to replace the blood used for these operations to ensure that supplies are replenished. So I can theoretically “volunteer” my donated reserves to the patient.