I donate whenever I see a blood drive. . .I try about three-four times a year. However, I tend to be really borderline on the iron, so it’s about 50/50 on whether they’ll actually let me bleed. I was also banned for a year for the “having sex with a male who has had sex with other males” thing.
Working on my 20 gallon pin. I donate platelets. I can do it every two weeks, but I just wait until they call…usually when I’m matched with someone, then I go.
How can you NOT donate? It costs you nothing put a little time and you can save a life.
Wow Ruffian, that’s amazing. I had no idea anyone did that. I’ve read of people finding wet nurses when the mother couldn’t nurse the baby, but to donate for strangers? Makes blood seem easy. I cannot give milk, pesky Y chromosome. 
I started about a year and a half ago when my school had a blood drive and have been a regular donor ever since.
In college, and the years following it, I gave every 8 weeks. Then I started traveling, and the regularity fell dramatically. I should give more though… fastest way to lose a pound! 
I’m not a donor. I used to be a massive needle phobic. Fortunately that got mostly cured a few years ago. Unfortunately it got cured when I got hepatitis and jaundice of unknown cause. (I say I got cured because I got stuck so many times for IV’s, blood tests, etc while the docs were trying to figure it out that I got used to it. I did almost faint several times though.) Like I say though, in the end after all that testing they had no idea why I had hepatitis. (I’m healthy now and show no liver damage which is apparently surprising.)
I used to donate regularly until one day the I went in and was told the rules regarding time spent in the UK had changed.
Can’t. Lived in Europe.
Nope. I have had sex with a man, even once, since 1978.
For the record, I was born in 1981.
I did so religiously when I was in college. Then I started [del]selling[/del] donating plasma. My veins are so scarred that it’s damn near impossible for the doc’s office to draw blood. Giving blood would be tantamount to torture for me.
I’ve had sex with a woman, who’s had sex with a man, who’s had sex with another man, even once, since 1977.
But they never ask me that.
Used to give all the time. I had just passed 2 gallons when they asked me to not give anymore. They claim I have a protein that triggers the HIV test but I think they saw me taking an extra doughnut once too often.
I’m banned until October because I was in Costa Rica last fall. Before that I donated blood a couple times after being reinstated following my one-year suspension for travelling to Peru.
I’m a “Member for Life”. I’m supposed to donate 4 times a year and I try to. In early January I had a bad cold so I waited a month for another blood drive that was nearby. I’ve had problems in the past with dizzyness and almost passing out and major black and blue marks on my arm, but I’ll keep going. I feel like I’m doing some good.
There’s malaria in Costa Rica. Not in every part–per this application from the CDC. But your local blood bank might just look at the whole country.
Somebody born in a malarial area needs to have been here* three* years before they can donate–if they are otherwise malaria free. Travelers just need to wait a year.
I used to, but I’ve gotten so fat that finding a good vein has become difficult, so I’ve kinda given up. Just call me the Kevin Smith of the bloodmobile.
When I DID donate, it was essentially to “replace” a friend of mine who was a regular donor until she spent a year in Germany. Her mother had cancer, and blood products were used in her chemotherapy.
Do European blood donation services exclude people who have lived in the US? 
Probably not. The rationalle is to exclude possibility of Mad Cow, for which there is no reliable screening.
I voted “Other”.
I used to donate blood until one day I got some hack of a nurse who tore up the inside of my left arm at the elbow trying to do her job. Something like twelve years later and it still aches there if it’s pressed on or if I extend my arm in a way where there’s strain on it (such as carrying a heavy suitcase or bucket of water). I figure I only have one good arm left and I’ll be damned if I let them dork that one up as well.
Prior to that, I used to donate like clockwork since the campus drives were every 56 days (give or take). Now the next time I do so will be to save an immediate family member or something.