Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service

I feel it is my civic duty to donate blood ever since a close family friend had to receive several pints after a bad accident a good few years ago. My girlfriend is also a rare blood type (I don’t remember the name, but it means she is a universal donor!) so she gets special letters to donate her blood so we always try and do it as much as we can!
Giving blood is such an easy and efficient process, I just don’t understand why more people don’t do it more often! After filling your initial questionnaire for a few minutes you get a small sample taken from your finger to ensure your iron levels are high enough to let you do it, and then the staff will guide you to the donation area and start taking your pint! It isn’t sore in the slightest, and I can say that as a 21 year old who has made 13 donations in the last few years!
The staff are always polite and attentive, and will make you feel at ease if you are that kind of person! It only takes about 15 minutes and then you are done, then after waiting for a while with some juice and biscuits you are able to go off on your business again! I can’t recommend what these people do enough!

My girlfriend attended this regularly and I was forced to come along once to provide blood and moral support! Needless to say, after what seemed like a only a few minutes, I had the little finger prick thing done and I was being propped up and hooked into a machine. Once the needle goes in, you’re sorted and you have a friendly member of staff to talk to. I have had to force conversation with customers before and it can be excruciatingly painful at times. But these people are more than happy to talk about the music on the radio, politics, your course, what biscuits you like, what you are getting for Christmas… Anything and what’s more is that they are all very nice. The place is so clean (as you would expect) but also is very friendly which some hospitals and health centres aren’t. If you are at all afraid of donating blood, come here and give it a try. There is no pain what so ever, all of the staff are very friendly and you get some tea and biscuits after it!
Don’t knock it until you try it. Very good.

I try to attend here as regularly as possible, in order to ‘do my bit’ for others. There is a great pride and satisfaction in knowing that a simple and selfless act of your own can in turn, possibly save a life. And that truly is the case. I started donating blood here when I turned 18, and always try to make it down every so often. The staff are SO nice, they really explain the process to you, help you with filling in forms (be prepared to answer some VERY personal questions) and they look after you from start to finish, especially if you’re not particularly good with needles. And it is a big enough needle — so those with squeamish natures, don’t bother. It’s not painful though, and you really are doing a good thing. They also give you a biscuit and some orange juice after — so even if you don’t want to do your thing for humanity — you might at least get a Custard Cream out of it!