Worth Their Weight in Gold
Posted on April 11th, 2007
Staff at Business Advice Direct (BAD) may be ‘bad’ by name but they are good by nature!
BAD delivers learndirect centres at 12 locations across the UK – and the staff also find the time to deliver lifesaving blood supplies as regular donors.
The company’s Financial Controller based at Grimsby is Wendy Key, who is not only a blood donor but on the bone marrow register donor as well.
It was the plight of her friend who required treatment for both breast cancer and leukemia that first prompted Wendy to become a blood donor.
“I have been giving blood for a couple of years and am about to give my eighth pint. One of the main reasons I do it is because I’ve got a rare blood type - A negative. And one of my close friends was reliant upon blood donors while she underwent treatment for breast cancer and leukemia and I know how grateful she was to the many strangers that helped her,” Wendy explained. “I’m also on the bone marrow donor register and this means that if and when anyone needs a transplant and they think that I may be a match, they will contact me and I will go into hospital for a day and donate my bone marrow. It’s quite nice to know that I am literally “on call” and could help save someone’s life!“
Tim Grant, who is based at Business Advice Direct Lincoln, is a blood and platelet donor and has received an award for giving blood ten times. Tim’s wife lost a great deal of blood after giving birth and needed blood transfusions, which started Tim thinking.
“I wanted to thank the nursing staff for the transfusions she received because if my wife had not had the blood, she may not have been here today,” said Tim. “Thankfully, although the first baby did not survive more than 4hrs after being born, we did eventually have two healthy children together and I am glad she is still around to be a mother to them and to see them grow up. This is why I wanted to be a blood donor.”
Tim has not yet been asked to donate platelets but explained:
“As a platelet donor you give a smaller amount of blood, but from a different part of the body where more of the white platelets reside. This enables those people with a small platelet count to regenerate more of the white platelets. I also believe these are useful for clotting of blood.“
Meanwhile Steve Roden from Business Advice Direct Stockport has been a donor for about eight months and said simply: “I do it because I think it’s really good thing to do,” and Judith Robinson from Learner Admin based at BAD head office in Grimsby has been a blood donor for about a year.
“I do it as my blood group is O negative and can be given to anyone,” she explained.
If this has inspired you to become a blood donor, remember there is nothing to fear! Wendy commented:
“I’m usually a wimp when it comes to needles, but the staff are always friendly and put you at ease, they are so thankful for your donation - plus the cuppa and biscuits are always welcome afterwards! I would certainly encourage others to go along and try it - it’s not as daunting as you may think and it’s usually at most a 10 minute job.”
So don’t put it off anymore! As Judith said:
“Why didn’t I do it before? It was just one of those things I never got round to and the session is just round the corner from me now.”
Head of Funding Learning at BAD, Fiona Wright, commented:
“At BAD we pride ourselves on the quality of our staff who always put the customer and quality of service first. I am not in the least surprise that so many of our members are blood donors – they are extending their ethical standards across both their personal and professional lives. I am delighted with them all.”
