Dionne Donates Every 16 Weeks. She Started Because Her Daughter Asked Her To.
“My daughter came home from school and said — Mum, did you know they don’t have enough Black blood? I didn’t know what to say. So I booked an appointment.” Dionne on the conversation that changed her life.
It was a Tuesday evening. My daughter Zara — she was thirteen at the time — came home from school quiet. That particular quiet where you know something is sitting with them.
Eventually she said: “Mum, we learned about sickle cell today. Did you know they don’t have enough Black blood? Did you know people are sick because not enough of us give blood?”
I didn’t know what to say. Because she was right, and I hadn’t known, and I felt that particular shame of a parent who has been caught not knowing something their child has figured out.
I booked an appointment that night. I didn’t tell her until after I’d been. When I showed her the little sticker they give you, she cried. Thirteen years old, crying in our kitchen over a blood donor sticker. I’ve never forgotten that.
That was four years ago. I’ve donated every 16 weeks since. Zara is 17 now and she’s registered — she’ll donate for the first time on her 18th birthday. That was her idea, not mine.
People ask me why I keep going. I think about the patients. I think about the families sitting in those hospital waiting rooms. And I think about Zara, and how I want to be someone she can be proud of.
You don’t need a grand reason. You just need to start. The rest follows.
— Dionne, 46, Manchester
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