Jake Bailey: How to save a life

NZME regional news editor Edward Rooney is among the 4 per cent of Kiwis eligible to give blood to babies. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Opinion

As humans, we seem to have a few universal fears. You probably aren't that keen on spiders, and neither am I.

Chances are you aren't a big fan of public speaking. Fair enough.

And you probably don't want to be seen as someone who is selfish, ungrateful, or takes things for granted. No one does.

Yet thinking of only oneself and being unappreciative is still something we are all guilty of at times, myself included.

Sometimes it's just too easy to get into the dangerously safe flow of day-to-day life, and move through on autopilot. Don't sweat it, it's normal, but you take most of the world around you for granted - just ask anyone who has unexpectedly lost a loved one, or their job, or their health.

So what do people do about this? Well, there's a few things people tend to do when they feel they're guilty of ingratitude. Some are productive, some aren't.

But more often than not, what people do is spend time feeling sorry for other people whose situations they cannot change. Pitying people who have it worse than them. And that's wasted time, wasted energy. It does no benefit to anyone, creates no change or betterment.

It's understandable though. Sometimes it feels like the only option. If someone you know is facing cancer or another life-threatening illness, at times there is very little you can do to help them, and that feeling of powerlessness is horrible.

That feeling of powerlessness is easily concealed by pitying them, but from my own experience I can tell you it doesn't change anything, and it's not what that person wants anyway. It is your own personal aversion to the situation someone else is in, and therefore you're only doing it for yourself.

So what should you actually do about it?

Well today, I've got a suggestion for what you can do to make a real difference.

To even save lives.

The best part is, it's free and it only takes an hour or so out of your day. This is beginning to sound like an infomercial now, but what I'm talking about is donating blood.

Despite what I had thought previously, donated blood is not just for trauma patients and surgery.

During my chemo, I had a heap of blood and blood products from strangers - the number of bags is somewhere in the high 20s, I think.

Without them, I probably wouldn't be alive today. When they say that giving blood saves lives, they're not having you on.

The first time I was given a blood transfusion in hospital, I locked eyes with my dad who was sitting across the room. He had a worried look on his face, which wasn't unexpected.

He paused for a long while, then said, "What if that blood has come from someone from Christ's College?", a rival school of mine.

We had a few good laughs about it, but at the end of the day I wouldn't have cared whose blood it was- it was saving my life.

Since the conclusion of my treatment, I've begun to slowly guilt trip my family and friends into signing up to be blood donors. The torch is now theirs to carry forward, and unfortunately my debt is theirs to repay, because I am no longer eligible to donate blood.

But I'm still committed to replacing those 30 or so bags of blood I used up, even though the only way I can do it is to convince others to donate on my behalf. That's why I'm writing this - to ask you to do me a favour, and go give back some of the blood that saved my life.

If not for me, do it for yourself, or your family.

You'll never know when you, or someone you know, is going to need bags and bags of the stuff.

The situations you could find yourself in needing blood are vast, even though "it will never happen to me, or anyone I love".

Do it for a mate or loved one who is facing cancer. Help provide them with life-saving medicine, without the 10 years at uni. Or do it for no one at all other than yourself, and the feeling of satisfaction you'll get from helping out.

There's plenty of work to do, given hospitals require 3000 donations a week to help keep people alive, and only 4 per cent of eligible Kiwis donate blood. It's an embarrassingly low figure for a country that prides itself on helping each other out.

Call up and make an appointment for later this week when you've got a bit of time free. Go along with a mate on your lunch break this week. You've really got nothing to lose, except about 500ml. It takes very little time out of your day, you only have to do it a few times a year, and it's a pretty decent excuse to get out of housework for the rest of the day as well, if that's an angle you're keen on.

And you'll be doing me, and a bunch of Kiwis around NZ, a huge favour. Cheers, I owe you one.