A friend at school altruistically organised a trip to the blood donation centre in town as we are now mostly old enough to go, so I went down this morning to donate. Apparently 6% of people who can donate do, which I thought could be seen as either high or low depending on how you looked at it. So I duly went in and had a perfectly successful blood test for iron content, and went to the table. Despite it taking a bit to get going (the donor carer stabbed the wrong place and a fountain of blood sprayed over the arm rest etc., to which I looked on bemused), I filled the unit of blood quite happily in eight minutes, below the average of ten minutes. However, it was when I sat up slowly that things started to go wrong. After feeling absolutely fine, I felt dizzy and said so, fortunately meaning that when I then fainted, someone caught me. Fainting, which has happened to me once before, is a very strange experience. I find myself thinking something through and probably thinking up some strange theory, and then suddenly it feels vaguely like I’ve just woken up from a dream or just started a dream and I have absolutely no idea where I am for several seconds; it is very strange not knowing where you are. The first thing I said was ‘did I just faint?’ as realisation dawned.

The nurse then told me that it was worth coming back, but if that were to happen again then I am not someone who should be giving blood at all, simply put. After spending what was probably an hour or so recovering in total I left for lunch out with my grandparents, but I’m still not feeling fantastic. I’m not at all used to being so unalert and not quite with it - this doesn’t happen to me, I don’t get ill! I think with regard to donating again I may well give it another go, but if there are problems then then I am helping them to create patients, not save them. Ah well, such is life.