I don't love needles and that's one of the reasons I haven't donated blood in several years. Good old-fashioned procrastination is another contributor. Last week, I got a good reminder that it's been well past time for me to stop procrastinating and sign up to donate some of the life-giving red stuff that flows through my veins (more on those later).
PQB resident David Prud'homme recently gave blood for an incredible 200th time at the quarterly donation clinic in Qualicum Beach. He got his start in high school, with a suggestion to his principal that he and several of his classmates go down to a blood clinic. For the next 58 years he has faithfully donated whenever he could.
I donated blood for the first time in high school when the gymnasium hosted a blood donation clinic for all eligible students 17 and older. It would be another 14 years before I donated blood again, or at least I attempted to. When I first moved to Parksville I had some time on my hands while I looked for a job.
I saw an online post about a blood donation clinic to be held in Parksville (this was a few years before they were relocated to the Qualicum Civic Centre) and figured this would be a nice thing to do in my new community. I had to message my mom and ask her to please remind me of my blood type, which turned out to be A-positive. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to skip lunch that day.
That turned out to be a mistake, since I fainted during the collection process. Luckily there was .
