Sorry I can’t contribute. Maybe next year. (Had a melanoma removed in March).
I try to donate every semester. St. Luke’s hospital comes to my campus for blood drives. In August I’ll be starting the rad tech program and doing my internship at a local hospital so I’ll be donating there too. Hope it doesn’t matter that it’s not the Red Cross.
I’m not due for my regular draining for another 4 weeks. When I go, I’ll drag my oldest son along. He’s only gone 3 or 4 times with me, and he’s not too keen on it, but I am pretty good at guilting him into it. 
It has always annoyed me that I’m not allowed to donate blood - I don’t weigh enough, and have an exciting yellow card with vaccinations for cholera, yellow fever, etc. and an exciting passport with travel in Africa and Asia. Except for the weight issue, the same goes for my husband.
Maybe they aren’t as picky here, though. I ought to at least find out.
I was told many years ago that if you have ever had cancer chemotherapy you are forever ineligible to donate. Was I misinformed, or have the rules changed?
ivylass, yer talking to the wall. In both my elbows, I have these cute lil’ dimple marks from all them needles. I have absolutely no idea how much liquid has come from me, or shall come from me in the future.
Get well soon.
I would love to but I have Mad Cow disease 
I sent my girlfriend instead.
I made my first donation on September 11, 2001, and have continued to donate irregularly ever since. Many times I’ve been declined due to low iron levels. The doc says my iron is fine but the Red Cross needs a higher level for donations.
I’m due and have been putting off that nice volunteer, Linda, who calls me to remind me to come do it. Ivylass, you’re my guilty conscience. I’ll go this week.
I can’t donate, but I’m spending this Thursday working so that one day I can.
I donate a few times per year. Maybe I’ll go tomorrow before work.
The biggest problem I have is that for the past few months the Red Cross has been calling me every damn day. Twice. Once between 4 and 5, and again between 5 and 6. They are all just automated, and it makes no difference if I answer them or ignore them, I will get another one in about an hour, and then two more the next day. :mad: Maybe the next time I go I’ll put a fake number down and the calls will stop?
But they do love me down at the donation center. Big ol’ veiny veins, tons of iron, good blood pressure (I fill that bag in like thirty seconds!..ok, more like five minutes. Still a pretty good clip,) and I’m O-. You want blood? Take mine, nothing bad about it! I do get the shaft, though, since I can only accept O-, but them’s the breaks.
12 litres of O and counting! Got a nifty hoodie last time.
Hey, you too?? Along with the whole population of the UK as well as a significant number of a generation of Kiwis and Aussies who visited the UK. Whoo boy it’s going to be fun when we all succumb!
I get very pissed off that I can’t donate because of my time in the UK.
There seem to be an awful lot of us around - at least a dozen people out of a hundred were given that specific deferral at the same time I was.
I’ve been gone two years, but I had to resubscribe just to reply to this thread (also, I didn’t want to be a jerk by waiting until free posting resumed).
One week before I donated my 120th pint (15 gallons), I came down with a medical condition that keeps me from donating again. I really miss being able to donate - it made me feel good.
They gave me a fifteen gallon pin anyway, but it just doesn’t feel like I have earned it (although I probably missed recording a pint or two along the way).
So, anyone who is still able: DONATE NOW!
I can’t until November-ish - last year we took a trip to Tanzania in October, so I’m out as a malarial risk until a year after. At least it used to be a year after - is it now three (due to olive’s CDC cite)? Does anyone know?
I try to go every 56 days.
And I’m 0+, so I’ll think of you next time. (which will be July 31st, assuming I can find someone to watch the toddler - her daycare is closed that week. Otherwise, it will be September. They bring a mobile clinic to the building across the road every 56 days, so I try to stay on schedule with it, because it’s so convienient. I can walk down to their main clinic, but lately I’ve been feeling pretty crummy afterward, so the extra walk wouldn’t be very fun.)
raises hand
I’m an American who lived in Yorkshire – among the cows and sheep – for two years, and even though I’ve been back in the States for 23 frickin’ years now (23!!) I’m still not allowed to donate.
I was supposed to donate last Wednesday, but I had a cold, so I rescheduled. I’ll be donating on Thursday this week, instead. I’ve got no idea how much I’ve donated, total, but I generally donate each time I’m eligible (with some slack for scheduling, illness, or whatever).
You know, with the Red Cross clamoring for blood, you’d think they’d be a little bit more open. I understand the need to keep the blood supply safe, not only for health reasons but for credibility reasons, but jeez…haven’t been in England for *23 years * and you can’t donate? 
Right–I assumed the same as you, but then somehow while I was pheresing one day, the subject came up, and they said that as long as it was a single-use kit, then you weren’t ineligible, but those “do it yourself at home with a needle, ice-cube and potato” ones DO make you ineligible for a year.