No B.S. with Bibi
By Bibi Sediqi
By Bibi Sediqi
At least two times a year, Stanford Blood Drive comes to Pioneer in recruitment for young donors. Like many procedures regarding one's health, there are requirements and tests that need to be cleared beforehand.
Plenty of girls including me are not able to meet requirements to draw blood for very annoying but reasonable reasons, and those are body mass index requirements.
I fully understand why Stanford and many other organizations have these specific weight and height requirements for the safety of the donors, since the majority of donors are youth under the age of 18.
But I often hear from my friends or people who wish to contribute that they simply cannot because they are just a few pounds short. I can sympathize with this since I fell short by three pounds according to my height range.
I wouldn't take that risk of being short of just a few pounds since dizziness, fainting or iron levels pose greater risks among younger females than our male counterparts. However, I find it almost unfair how guys can get away with the weight to height ratio.
Still, I want to emphasize to the individuals who want to donate to not feel discouraged just because you don't meet requirements. I tried to be a form of emotional support to my friends and to the people I recognized at the event. I made small talk and hyped up donors who were a bit on edge. Despite me not being able to be a donor myself, I made with what I could and contributed in my own way.
Plenty of girls including me are not able to meet requirements to draw blood for very annoying but reasonable reasons, and those are body mass index requirements.
I fully understand why Stanford and many other organizations have these specific weight and height requirements for the safety of the donors, since the majority of donors are youth under the age of 18.
But I often hear from my friends or people who wish to contribute that they simply cannot because they are just a few pounds short. I can sympathize with this since I fell short by three pounds according to my height range.
I wouldn't take that risk of being short of just a few pounds since dizziness, fainting or iron levels pose greater risks among younger females than our male counterparts. However, I find it almost unfair how guys can get away with the weight to height ratio.
Still, I want to emphasize to the individuals who want to donate to not feel discouraged just because you don't meet requirements. I tried to be a form of emotional support to my friends and to the people I recognized at the event. I made small talk and hyped up donors who were a bit on edge. Despite me not being able to be a donor myself, I made with what I could and contributed in my own way.