Colleen has donated for over 50 years

I first started donating blood when I worked for a printing firm in Auckland in 1965. I was 19 years old and we were collected and taken into town to donate, so I must admit at that time it was an excuse for time off work.

Things were very different then, no fancy tilting chairs. We clambered up onto a flat wooden bed. Nothing was on computer, details were recorded in a little booklet. Apart from during my 5 pregnancies, I have continued to donate and passed the 100 donation mark a few years ago for which I received a commemorative T Shirt.

An added incentive to donate blood was when in the year 2000 our good friend Brian Simmons had a horrific accident off his boat and came close to dying. He required 300 units of blood. For a couple of years he was the face of the NZ Blood Service.
I have now been donating for over 50 years, a bit more paperwork now that I am over 70 but it is such a small thing and I just do it as a matter of course.