summer goal: organ and blood donation

Anything healthcare related always has me interested and the donation of various useful things has me particularly interested due to the ethical debate surrounding some of it. Now, personally, I'm all for donation if one is willing. I, myself, signed up for organ donation when I was 14 (seven years ago) and I duly informed my parents (even though I'm still young) that if anything unfortunate were to happen, I want as much of me donated as possible.

Now, with organ donation comes the debate about the ethics of it. However, this post isn't about opening that debate - it's about one of my summer goals. My summer goal is to donate blood and donate bone marrow.

Donating blood, for me, is something that doesn't cost much bar an hour or two and being of an ethic minority in the United Kingdom, any blood I donate may come in useful too (not that I'm saying other blood isn't useful - all blood is useful!) as I remember reading somewhere that certain blood types from some races weren't in as abundant a supply as others. (Correct me if I'm wrong, however!) Another, more personal, reason for me in doing this is the fact that before I was born, my mum had to be given blood due to a ruptured ulcer - and if it wasn't for whoever had donated blood so that her life was saved, I wouldn't even be here! I'm a firm believer in what comes around, goes around; so in essence, donating my blood will not only work out well for someone else who needs it; but will also give myself some positive energy :)

Next, the donation of bone marrow. A few months ago, someone came into the biochemistry computer room on campus while I was working and stood at the front asking people to go down to the health centre (or somewhere) to donate bone marrow if they had the time (or maybe to find out about it? I'm not entirely sure) and since then, my interest in bone marrow donation has risen. One of my friends' then decided to tell me that it was a very painful procedure, etc, etc. but upon further research, I realised that a little pain for me could end up being a massive gain for someone else who really needs it.

After all, we all live on one world where there is one race - the human race - and if we can't help each other, who can we help?

Do any of you set summer goals too? Do let me know as I have three months off this summer (with only one month of productiveness so far) so any suggestions would also be appreciated!