Blood donation in Finland

The Finnish Red Cross Blood Service (Punainen Risti Veripalvelu) is responsible for blood donations in Finland.  They have centres across the country as well as mobile units where it is possible to donate blood.  The big screen in the centre of Jyväskylä (by the compass (kompassi)) has started to show the levels of donated blood, and I thought it would be good idea to bring attention to this.

Unfortunately I cannot donate blood - actually, permanently banned from giving blood - in Finland for two reasons.  The first reason is that anyone that has lived in the UK between 1980 and 1996 is banned from giving blood forever due to mad cow disease.  In the UK we can obviously donate blood, but I suppose that's because we're all so disease ridden that it can't hurt us any further.

The second reason I cannot donate blood is because I'm gay.  Yes, really, if you are male and have ever had sex with a man, even once in your life, you are forever banned from giving blood because of the supposed higher risk of HIV infections.  So while a person that has heterosexual sex with multiple partners all their life can donate blood, a man that either has sex with a man just once, or is in a committed relationship (one sex partner), they cannot donate.  Finland is not alone in adopting this policy, but people are still sometimes surprised to hear this.

Because I cannot donate blood in Finland, I encourage others to do so.  The website of the Finnish Red Cross Blood Service has all of the important information in English, including who can and cannot donate and details of the Jyväskylä donation centre.