Giving blood for Julie

Mark Willliams told us the reason why he and a group of his wife Julie’s friends gave blood at the RGU session this week.

Mark said, "My wife Julie was diagnosed with cancer 4 years ago and after fighting a long battle, she unfortunately passed away six months ago.

She had several transfusions during her cancer treatment and we’re just trying to help out as best we can to help other people going through something similar.

Giving blood is something we want to do each year for Julie and it felt right and pure coincidence that the first opportunity fell on Julie's birthday, literally in the building I work in at RGU for Denis Law Legacy Trust, almost like she made it happen!"

"Obviously as it’s only been six months, there are still a lot of ‘firsts’ to go through and I wasn’t sure what to do on Julie’s birthday but when I noticed the blood donation session was on I could think of no better way of honouring her."

Julie’s school friend Sarah also donated and said "Julie was ill for a few years but she never missed anything, you would never have known she was ill. She was determined to live every single minute of her life and kept everything as normal as you could for her kiddies. She was such a brave lady, she had quite a lot of different procedures and none of it stopped her doing anything, she was just amazing."

Mark concluded "Julie wouldn’t have had 4 years if it hadn’t been for the blood transfusions she received so we just wanted to give something back for her and help others to have more time if not forever with their loved ones."

We can’t thank you enough for honouring Julie’s memory by giving blood on her birthday.

• If you would like to give blood, you can register to become a donor and book online at scotblood.co.uk