Diana's donor story

I started donating whole blood at high school in the mid 1970's. On leaving high school and moving to Dunedin to work at the Ministry of Works I continued to donate whole blood as part the the MOW team. It was quite an occasion to do this as a number of us would all leave work and walk to the Dunedin Hospital together - great team bonding.
On moving to Christchurch I continued to donate whole blood and eventually was added to the Platelet donor group and then onto the Plasma donor group. However there is also another side to this story, the testing completed by NZ Blood highlighted a rapid drop in my Ferritin levels with an eventual diagnosis of Coeliac Disease. Now that this is controlled by a strict Gluten Free diet I am back to healthy iron levels which enables me to continue donating blood. At my last donation I have completed 116 donations. I love the NZ Blood app which allows me to make appointments with ease. I still keep my NZ Blood card as you never know when you may be required for a blood donation. On a recent cruise a call went out for my donors and with my NZ Blood donors card the medical staff were able to confirm I had the required blood type without the need for blood type testing.