Giving Blood

Hi, does anyone know if a diabetic type 1, can give blood.(ps graduate now yippee) Thanks

Found on http://www.tudiabetes.org/forum/topics/giving-blood


I emailed the blood service here in the UK, asking if Type 1's can give blood, the response was.....

"Thank you very much for your enquiry. We hope the following answers your concerns.

I am sorry but this will prevent you from donating blood. If anything changes in the future please contact us back.

If there is anything we can help with or that you would like to discuss further, please do not hesitate to contact us again. We would be pleased to help if we can."

So that's the stand in the UK - Not sure what they think is going to happen in the tuture

Oh well... it would have been nice to give something back, perhaps a half ticked donor card would be more sufficient;-) Thanks

Think we might just have to leave our bodys to science

I think mines going to give them plenty to work on, well my immune system is anyway. It certainly seems to be challenging the medical profession whilst I am still alive ;^)

I do find this a little strange as to why we cannot give blood. Is our blood any different then?

Well I have never been told. But giving my body to sciience might help find out and help others. They can do what they want with my body after I am gone. I wont need it hahaha.

ive always been told that the reason that we cant give blood is something to do with the fact that that we need to inject insulin and this might be take out of the body when giving blood.

I believe the reason is that our BG at any time we give blood may be high or low. There may also be a possibility that there could be a gene in the blood that might cause somebody to develop diabetes, though I don't know, but i've always been told that I cannot give blood.

I think its pretty unlikely to be genes, since we don't really know what causes Type 1 for sure. They are not going to stop us because of that. Its more likely that its because we have to inject needles into ourselves all the time and needles are a primary source of infections/diseases. This is a bit unfair since we are hardly the same drug addicts, but thats life I guess.