Mark's reason for donating

I am coming up for 100 donations and it all started with my Father and a Christmas Eve, 55 years ago. A lady had a "blue baby" and the baby needed a complete blood transfusion, and my Father was an O universal donor. They called him up and said they were desperately short of blood could he come up and donate. The blood went straight to the little baby.

A couple of weeks later my Mother was talking to the lady at the end of the street who had had a baby on Christmas Eve, and how a wonderful man had donated blood and saved her baby. So we all knew who this was, and the impact of his donation. We called the boy on the end of the street, whose brothers we played with, our "blood brother".

It had a vast impact on our family, and we have all given blood and I often think "if I only knew exactly who my blood has gone to" like Dad did.

It is a pleasure to donate, and I just hope I manage to get to my ton.