On doing something amazing, today.

I don't give blood nearly as often as I should. Up until (and sporadically including) recently, I've worked normal 9to5 hours, in an office that's pretty inaccessible to local hospitals and the like. I've not donated since before we moved down here, which is terrible really.

I'm a huge believer in the NHS (this excludes dentistry, don't get me started). I know that people who don't have access to a nationalised health service are jealous of those who do, and this jealousy is one of the very few things that actually fills me with a sense of national pride for old Blighty. If you've watched Michael Moore's Sicko and you're Canadian, French or British, it really hits home how fundamentally important healthcare for the people is (being a realistic socialist myself, I do believe it's best to give "for the people" a chance in the first instance of everything. Granted, it doesn't always work out). I mean, how many of us would be able to budget for the actual cost of a course of cancer treatment when you can be talking about over £10k a go? I don't have that kind of cash lying around! I know that's pretty morbid, but 1 in 3 people get some form of cancer in their life, so it's not an unreasonable interjection.

Anyway, digression, I could wax lyrical about how I love the NHS all day, and about how a lot of awesome things suck sometimes but that doesn't stop them being awesome, maybe one day I will. Not today, though. Today I'm pitching an idea to anyone who's reading this. It's something I meant to do at my last job (hopefully I planted the thought in people who stayed when I left) and I'm going to do now. I'm organising a blood donation session at our office complex in a bid to try and aleviate some of my guilt for not having been for the last couple of years. I mean, if I can get 25 people to donate some blood, that's over 6* the amount I could've given since I was too busy (not an excuse) to give!

Right now is where I spout facts and figures about how many people your blood could save, so to save me doing it, imagine that (higher powers forbid, please) someone you know/love needs surgery which could involve the use of someone else's blood; if that blood hadn't been donated, it wouldn't be available to your friend/relative when they needed it. At which point, the person who donated it doesn't need it anymore, they already regenerated it! Now the person who donated their blood feels good because they're certain that their blood went to good use, the person who got it feels awesome because of all the lovely new blood they have, and you feel great because your friend/relative is all better. Who loses there? No-one, that's who. So, organise a blood donation session, or just give blood when you can. Thanks.