Together with the South African National Blood Service, our Blood Donor Committee held their first Blood Donation clinic of 2025 on Tuesday, 25 February in the Dave Mayo Center at Howick High School.
Learners (including new donors), past pupils and staff all came out to support including both our Head Girl, Madison, and Deputy Head Girl, Nokwanda, who ensured they made a donation straight after Netball practice.
A total of 47 pints was collected, just short of our target of 50. We encourage members of the public to support our blood donor clinics – all are welcome to attend the clinics at Howick High School. The dates will be advertised on our social media pages.
Just one unit of donated blood can be processed into three components, namely red cells, platelets and plasma, thus saving up to three lives. The donation process takes approximately 30 minutes. Low donor numbers means the nation is almost always close to running out of blood stocks, placing thousands of lives at risk every day.
If you know of communities, corporates, schools, colleges, churches or residential complexes where the SANBS can sign up new donors and hold blood drives, visit sanbs.org.za/book-blood-drive-form/ to sign them up.
Minimum requirements to be a blood donor:
You are between the ages of 16 and 75 years old, for first time donors
You weigh a minimum of 50kg (for platelets a minimum of 55kg)
You are in good health
You lead a low risk lifestyle
You consider your blood safe for transfusion
You have eaten a balanced meal within four hours of donating blood
You have not donated blood in the last 56 days (platelets in the last
14 days)
Your pulse is between 60-100 regular beats per minute
Your blood pressure is below 180 systolic (first number) and below 100 diastolic (second number) (180/100mmHg) and above 100 systolic (first number) and above 60 diastolic (second number) (100/60mmHg)
Your haemoglobin level is 12.g for women and 13.g for men/dL or above
Pictured here: Head Girl, Madison and Deputy Head Girl, Nokwanda popping in to make a donation straight after Netball practice.