A village resident who’s been giving blood for 34 years is to be recognised for his life saving donations with a special award.
Dr Mike Robinson (pictured above with wife Charlene) has now given blood more than 250 times! Bearing in mind that only one donor in a hundred ever reaches 100 donations, passing the 250 mark is very special indeed. The BT Openreach employee says: “Every four weeks my manager lets me use 90 minutes of volunteering time at the end of the day to head off to Nottingham and donate platelets. Platelets are extremely important for people fighting cancer, particularly children with Leukaemia. But they can only be stored for seven days. Unlike giving whole blood, it only takes four weeks to recover and donate again.”
He remembers: “I started donating in 1984 when I was 17 following in my mum’s footsteps. I moved to platelet donation in 1999 when I went back to university to get my PhD – as I was able to commit to the regular 90 mins.”
Mike urges everyone to consider using some of their time to donate blood: “It can from be as little as 10-15 minutes every 16 weeks for full blood to as much as a couple of hours each month if you can spare it to give platelets. Platelets are vital particularly to help cancer patients. ONE donation can help TWELVE kids with Leukemia! Either way, you get to just sit back and really help people then get guilt free biscuits and a very warm glow!”
You can find out more about giving blood or donating platelets >>HERE<<.
Helping people in need at home and abroad seems quite literally to run in the blood of the Robinson family since Charlene, his wife of 14 years, helps to run Ruddington’s Mustard Seed Project which fundraises and facilitates projects for the community and schools in Teso, Uganda. She’s also been a blood donor herself since 1991.
Mike will receive his special certificate and a gift from the National Health Service’s Blood and Transplant Service to mark his amazing milestone at a regional award ceremony on Thursday February 22nd – at Nottingham’s Colwick Hall Hotel.
