I just gave my fourth pint last week- I started out just wanting to try it, but now I’ve discovered it’s so easy to make a difference, I’ve decided I want to do it the maximum amount (3 times a year here in the UK) every year.

My third session went really terribly- I have incredibly deep veins, and they couldn’t get the needle in right, so they kept digging round and ended up going into the vein AND out through the back, so half my forearm (I’m not kidding) came up in a totally painless bruise, right in time for my senior prom (joy) Almost put me off, but I figure what’s a little haemorraghing between friends, eh? Anyway, fourth time I changed to my right arm and, though my veins are still really deep- no problems.

I and a friend of mine are sort of doing this together, it’s kind of our “thing” He and I tend to go together, or at least on the same day, and it’s kind of a joke we hold over one of our friends who’s unable to give due to the fact that she got a transfusion a few years ago.- She’s the sort that likes to be doing what everyone else is doing, so we’re a little mean over it, but I like to think it’s character building for her ;) Anyway, we’ve both decided we want to donate 100 times (takes about 30 years of regular donating) because at that “level” you recieve a free decanter and an “invitation” neither of us know what the invitation is for, but we both hope that the decanter comes with the option of being filled with blood as a mark of our huge sacrifices :P Obviously we’re mainly doing it because it’s a really easy way to do something good, but it’s fun to have a goal, albiet a slightly weird one, plus it’s great to have something that only we do (all our other friends are of the “ew, why would you do that? It’s my blood, why would I want to give it away” mentality- we’ve tried reasoning with them, but to no avail, we convinced one of them to come with us once but so far as I know he’s not gone back.)

Anyway, I’ll consider this goal “Achieved” when I’ve given one or two more times.