Glasgow donor David reaches amazing 700 donations

David Walker remembers walking into the Glasgow Donor Centre for the first time. ‘It was my 18th birthday. I wanted to do something special to mark the day. I’d recently watched a television comedy sketch about giving blood, and thought, "I could do that."

'I was at school in the city centre so it was not far to go. That was the 11th of March 1966, but it feels like it was just yesterday. The first time I gave blood I wanted to watch everything they were doing, but since then, I just let them get on with it.'

I’ve seen nurses start their careers, retire 40 years later and I’m still here. 700 donor David Walker

After leaving Glasgow High School and graduating from the University of Glasgow, David (now 73) began a career in pension funds.

'My whole working life was in the city centre, so it was always easy just to pop in and give a donation. My work were generous, they used to give me time off in lieu of making blood donations and encouraged everyone to give. At one point, around 80 of us were all blood donors.'

David made his first 65 whole blood donations over the course of around 16 years.

'I was then asked if I would like to donate plasma, which you go do much more regularly, then a few years later I moved on to platelets. I've been coming every four weeks ever since.

'It's hard to believe I've reached 700 donations. I've seen nurses start their careers, retire 40 years later and I'm still here.

'When you make a donation you will feel really good about yourself. Once you've done it once you might find that you just keep coming back. You get a break from day to day life and it's amazing how good you feel afterwards.'

 

If you’ve been inspired by David to give give blood you can book an appointment by creating your online donor account at scotblood.co.uk, contacting us online, or phone us on 0345 90 90 999 (Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm).

• Find out more about giving plasma.
• Find out more about giving platelets.