Thursday, October 8, 2015

Its Better To Be A Giver Than A Receiver


On 2nd Aug 2015, my wife saw the Blood Donation Drive banner around our neighbourhood and asked me if I am ok to join her. Ok why not. By the way she was a first time donor and was pretty nervous about it as previously, her weight was below 45kg so was not heavy enough to donate blood. Now she's 47kg so off we go!

When we reached Metta School @ Simei Street 1, Oh boy! there were many people there and we were quite surprised. Its a Sunday and we can see quite a few donors are from the Y gen meaning those around 20+ years old. Good good!

We had to fill up a few pages of questionaire to make sure we are physically fit without any serious medical history or disease. After that, we have to have our blood pressure taken by a on-site doctor who will run through the survey form and ask questions on some of our answers. Wow I must say its quite strict in making sure that they got the right donors.

Made a small chat with the doctor and he said this donation drive very strange. Suddenly all the old donors who stopped donating long time ago appeared today and also lots of first time donors haha. I was one of those old donors who didnt visit them for long time. He said my last visit was 2010 or 2011.

Then, when it was my turn to lay down and got my blood siphon out, a senior nurse came along and chat with me. She told me that the Blood Donation Drive was supposed to end at 3pm and it was already 2.30pm and looking at the huge wave of donors coming in, they can only end after 5pm. She told me, she and her team of nurses have not taken their lunch and wouldn't want to hold us back and was happy that so many donors came forward. Suddenly all the nurses who are busy working look so attractive to me! Such a nice white nightingale :)

I feel so fortunate and blessed to still be a abled bodied person to donate blood to the needy. Knowing that my blood will one day save a life and make a difference. I got a colleague who got involved in a road accident told me that she used up 20 bags of blood when she got hit by a taxi. See one bag of blood is not enough and you can only donate blood once every 3 months. Those who are keen please be a regular donor :)

Well, its better to be a giver than a receiver. Ok, I empathize over my colleague's mishap but in this case, everyone would rather be the donor than the receiver. Just like the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of giving :)

Same for money, isn't it great to have enough or surplus money so that you can help less fortunate people who are in need of help for emergency use? I wrote it in my motivation that in order to help others we have to first help ourselves only then are we in the advantage or position to help others.