Blood cancer awareness month | Blood & stem cell donation 

Hey loves, hope your all well! Following on from my first post about blood cancer awareness month, here is my second one. This one is all about blood and stem cell donation. Donating blood, platelets or stem cells can literally save someone’s life, I know if someone hadn’t donated their blood I wouldn’t be here today. 

Blood Donation.

Through experience I know the importance of needing blood and platelet transfusions which without I wouldn’t have survived and I can’t thank donor’s enough, It’s an amazing thing to do. I never knew my blood type until I started treatment, I’m actually in the 8% of the donor population who are O-, which is apparently a very special group as it can be given to anyone but because I’ve had a blood cancer I will never be able to give blood which is so upsetting as I’d love to give something back, the only thing I can do now is encourage others to donate.

You don’t need a special reason to give blood, You just need your own reason ❤️

Here come some facts..

Around 25% of the population will need blood at some point in their lives but only 4% of people in the UK who are able to give blood actually do which is not enough. I found these statistics shocking.. 

Around 8,000 blood transfusions are carried out every day, so there’s always a need for blood donations.

As blood can only be safely stored for a relatively short time, hospital blood stocks need to be continuously refreshed. Red blood cells can only be stored for 35 days and platelets can only be stored for seven days.

Just one donation can help up to 3 people.

If you are wondering what actually happens on the day you give blood, please click this link which takes you through what happens step by step. 

Do something amazing and register to become a blood donor.

Stem Cell Donation

As most of you know I needed a stem cell transplant in April last year thankfully I was lucky enough to have my own cells back as I was in remission before the transplant due to the intensive chemotherapy I had. Unfortunately others aren’t so lucky and they need people to donate their stem cells to live. 

I think there is a myth to stem cell donation that it’s painful, well it’s definitely not. If you are okay with needles, the day itself is just like donating blood. 

I bet your wondering what actually happens when you donate, here’s a little insight.. 

To ensure that you are able to donate enough blood-forming cells for the transplant, you will receive daily G-CSF injections for four consecutive days before your donation. (G-CSF (granulocyte-colony stimulating factor) is a naturally occurring growth hormone that stimulates the production of stem cells in the blood before collection). These are usually injected in your tummy and only stings for a few seconds.. Trust me! 

On the day of the collection you’ll probably be lying in a bed and you will have one needle inserted into your left arm and one in your right. They will remove blood from one arm, running it through a machine that separates out the stem cells, then returning the blood through to your other arm. It should only take 4-6 hours then you can go home! So easy right?! 

Every 20 minutes, someone in the UK is told they have a blood cancer like leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma. A blood stem cell donation from a matching donor could save their lives.

It’s SO easy to become a bone marrow and stem cell donor, it literally takes less than a few minutes to sign up and the amazing thing is, you could save a life! If you are aged 17-55 and in good health please go to https://www.dkms.org.uk to become a hero!  

Please register to become a blood donor or stem cell donor if it’s the only thing you do today. Thank you!