Norman H. had always wanted to donate his blood, but with his busy life he'd never got around to it. It wasn't until he watched news programmes about the 7/7 bombings in London, when he finally realised that the time had come.

On Monday, Mr. H. may have saved the lives as many as five Bermudians, just by making a fist and raising his arm.

Mr. H. is one of hundreds of others who donate their blood to the Bermuda Red Cross.

This weekreporter Jessie Moniz met Mr. H. at the Bermuda Red Cross blood donor centre when she donated her own first pint ? taking literally the old saying, 'writing is easy, just open up a vein and type'.

The Bermuda Red Cross blood donation centre is located on the first floor of King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. Unlike other parts of the hospital where people go because they are sick or injured, the atmosphere in the blood donor centre is cheery.

The volunteers and donors are in good health and they want others to be also. Newcomers were first seated in a small corridor with other donors. They were given a piece of paper with a series of questions about the potential donor's general health, sexual orientation and place of abode in recent years.

The criteria for giving blood has been ever-tightening, due to fear of sexually transmitted diseases, and also Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (Mad Cow disease). People who have lived in England for a certain amount of time are screened, because the Creutzfeldt-Jakob pathogen can't be filtered by the blood donor centre's equipment.

To donate blood you must be between the ages of 17 and 70 and weigh more than 110 pounds and your blood haemoglobin (HGB) level must be at least 12.5. Potential blood donor's HGB levels were tested right there in the corridor.

"This is the worst of it," said registered nurse volunteer Wilma Frith as she gave a blood donor's finger a quick stab. She took a blood sample, and a little while later wrote on a piece of paper '12.7', just over the cut-off.

Mrs. Frith is one of 50 volunteers in the blood donor clinic, and the clinic is always looking for more nursing volunteers.

?I have been working here since pre 1965 in the blood donor centre,? said donor centre chairman Mrs. Cooper. ?I have been chairman for about 12 years.?

Giving blood every three months, Mrs. Cooper has probably donated more than 100 pints of her own blood over the years.

The average adult has between ten to 12 pints of blood in the body, so Mrs. Cooper has probably given about ten times her own blood volume.

?Since I reached the tender age of 70 plus, I can give blood once a year provided I do it right after I have had a doctors check-up and he gives me a note that states I am fit to give blood,? she said. ?The reason we have a cut off at seventy is that as people get older they are more liable to miss the fluid volume in the body.?

Nurse Morag Smith led the new donor into the donor room. The donor laid down on a table and had her arm prepped with alcohol. ?I?m just checking for a vein,? said Mrs. Smith squeezing the donor?s arm.

?If I don?t have any veins in there, I?m in trouble,? the donor joked.

?Yes, your arm would be feeling a little empty.?

The bantering continued as the needle was inserted and blood started to flow through a sterile tube into a machine called a rocker and into a collection bag.

?The blood bag sits on a rocker which is a special machine designed so the blood when it is flowing mixes in with the citrate that is in the bag,? Mrs. Cooper explained. ?It prevents clotting of the blood.?

According to Dr. Keith Cunningham, Bermuda Red Cross Medical Officer, after surveys were done of Bermuda Regiment recruits it was discovered that type B blood is one of the most common types in Bermuda.

?The two groups that we try to keep an eye on are B, for the reason I have just given you, and paradoxically O,? said Dr. Cunningham. ?O is the commonest group so there is lots of it, but there is also a very big demand for it, so there is an inordinate turnover with that group.

?O is so called a universal donor because group O lack A or B proteins, so O really stands for zero.?

?We always need more O,? said Mrs. Cooper. ?We have to have a minimum of 40 units in the blood bank at one time. With the very rare types we just call when we need it. The blood lasts for 37 days. Very rarely is there ever any left after five weeks. The other good thing about our donors in Bermuda is that we have a close proximity to them so they can get here in a hurry if we need them.?

Blood donation is by appointment. This allows the clinic to control how many blood donors they see in a day.

?We don?t do mass clinics, because while we would get blood, it wouldn?t necessarily be the blood groups that are needed,? she said. ?Therefore there would be a chance that that blood wouldn?t be used.?

Some patients who are about to undergo surgery choose to donate their own blood, just in case it is needed during the operation. Dr. Cunningham said in the United States scientists are trying to reverse engineer blood types to get A and B blood types back to O. ?All embryonic cells start off as group O and then A or B is tacked on to it,? Dr. Cunningham said. ?So far they have succeeded in converting B cells to O cells and make them universal donors, but I don?t know if it has worked with A.?

In addition to O, A, B and AB there are a number of subgroup blood types. There are so many, that on this level our blood is as unique as a fingerprint.

When Mrs. Cooper started in the blood donor centre in the 1960s things were much less high-tech. ?There was no rocker so we had to gently shake the bags by hand all the time. We were spending all our time going around the bed shaking the citrate in the bags. We have had these rockers now for close to twenty years.?

In any given population only about two percent of the population donate blood, although about half the population are eligible. Mrs. Cooper said that over the years, because of the more stringent screening of blood donors, there are fewer donors today than when she started.

?We are also doing more complicated and major surgeries now,? she said. ?Also, there is more need for blood because there is more aggressive treatment for cancer.

?A lot of the cancer patients who are getting chemotherapy have to have platelets because that is one thing the chemotherapy does is destroy platelets, which is a clotting factor.?

After 17 minutes, Mrs. Smith appeared again to remove the needle. ?Raise your arm right up in the air, and hold the needle spot with your thumb,? she said.

After a minute or two a band-aid was placed over the needle spot. The refreshment co-ordinator, Suzie Dove, came in and asked if the donor wanted apple juice, orange juice or a mixture of apple and cranberry.

In the refreshment room there was juice and cookies waiting (the best part of the whole process). ?Make sure you are drinking lots of water today and tomorrow to replace the volume we have taken off,? Ms Dove warned. ?Don?t go running any half marathons.?

Mrs. Cooper said there is often a wonderful atmosphere in the refreshment centre.

?When we have these clinics it is a bit like old home week,? she said. ?On a busy clinic we will have from 40 to 45 people. The average would be between 30 and 35. This morning was a bit light with around 15 people.

Donors usually spend about 20 minutes in the recovery room. ?When you get the camaraderie going in here, sometimes they are still here an hour later,? said Mrs. Cooper. ?Our refreshment hosts are not nurses, but they are very important to us.?

Afterward the blood is donated it is sent to the lab for testing. If the blood screening discovers any illnesses, notice of it will be sent to the donor?s doctor.

After a week or so the first time donor will receive a card with his or her blood type on it. They will also receive an email message to forward onto their friends and family to encourage more people to become donors.

All in all, the most painful part of the process was removing the band-aid at the end of it all. Compared to having your eyebrows waxed, this is nothing.

@EDITRULE:

People wishing to donate blood, or nurses wishing to become volunteers should contact the clinic at 236-5067.