My Chemistry teacher (Lisa, you may remember her) once offered her class a weeks extension on a piece of course work if we went and gave blood.

Ever since then I've been a sporadic doner. I keep forgetting to find the nearest place when I move house (from collage to uni to west London to North London).

The fact that it helps save lives, is enough to get over my fear of needles. I can't look left for the whole time I do it, and usually sit there curling and uncurling my toes (a distraction technique I got taught when I had my molar out).

The worst that's ever happened was when I refused to sit down and have a cup of squash, rushed out to see my mates, and nearly fainted. After lying down for 5 mins I was okay enough to get up and gor a chineese. The next day I'd been hard pressed to tell anything had happened.

I usually go with a friend. You can't give blood within 2 weeks of having a cold as you may still be infectious. So for most of this winter I couldn't go as my friend had, or had just got over a cold. We had an appointment booked today, and now I've started sneezing.So I thought I'd try and make up for it, by encouraging the Boinngers to sign up.
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