Did you know that you can save lives, by recycling bits of yourself? From your heart (if you die) to your blood to your breastmilk and even toenails to help rhinos (more on that later)
The Museum of Odd Body Parts is a tour of your body’s useless parts, flaws and weird bits! This hiliarous book for children age 7 to 11 educates on the fascinating science of evolution. From Wisdom Tooth to Disappearing Kidney, learn how body parts that were essential to our ancestors are no longer useful to us, even though they are still hanging around.
Donate Your Cut Hair
If you are about to have your long hair cut into a shorter style, don’t let the hairdresser sweep your lovely locks into the bin! These charities will take donated hair to make free wigs for children with alopecia, or medical-related hair loss.
Do not ‘donate hair’ (or pet fur) to garden birds, to make nests. Most hair and fur contains remnants of shampoo, medicines etc, and can cause harm, as can lint from washing machines (mouldy and a choking hazard). Hair can also cut off blood circulation (like when you’ve ever got a strand caught around your finger). Birds have been making nests for thousands of years, without our help.
Little Princess Trust and Little Lady Locks both accept cut hair in ponytails, with information on each site on how to send it, and what they do and don’t accept. You can also use both sites to request a free wig for your child. In summary:
- Hair should be at least 7 inches (17cm) long and in good condition. Hair should be washed and dried before donation. Wet hair goes mouldy in the post!
- Hair can be from any gender, colour (not henna) or texture, but not dry or frizzy (they accept Afro hair, not dreadlocks).
- Grey hair can be accepted if colour is permanent (but not if semi-permanent as the colour will wash out).
- You can also donate used hair extensions (at least 16 inches or 46cm, washed twice and completely dried) and wigs (must be human hair).
- When donating, ask your stylist to secure the hair with a band, and cut just above. Braid and secure the other end, to stop it tangling.
Many people about to undergo chemotherapy like to donate their hair, as they know in advance it is going to fall out. It’s a lovely way to help you feel better about temporarily losing your hair, knowing it did good for someone else. Ask around, as many hair salons will cut your hair for free, if donating to a charity above. A good incentive to chop off split ends!
Donate Your Blood
Donating blood is pretty easy and safe. It’s all screened and they won’t take it, if you have health or age issues. This is used to help people who need blood transfusions etc. You even get a cup of tea and biscuits afterwards.
There are a couple of common blood types (inherited) and some that are not common. Both are needed. Not only can some people receive blood from more than one group – but the rare ones are obviously in demand. But also as most people needing blood will have a common blood group, there is more demand. One blood donation can save up to 3 lives, including for cancer patients.
Australian blood donor James Christopher Harrison recently had to stop donating, as he past the age of 80. But ‘the man with the golden arm’ became known for his donations, as his unusual plasma make-up was used to treat and save over 2.5 million babies with Rhesus Disease. He made over 1000 donations during the time he was allowed.
Donate Your Breast Milk
Breast milk is usually produced on supply and demand. So for most cases, you would never run out (if so, then obviously you would know about this). It works a bit like blood donation. You pump out the milk, then freeze it, and it’s collected and tested for diseases like HIV, syphilis, hepatitis and HTLV. Breast milk is wonderful for preemies (premature babies) as they often have delicate guts. And many mothers can’t breastfeed for medical reasons. So if the mother can’t breastfeed, the next best thing is another mother’s milk (from a human).
Just a few ounces can in some circumstances, save a life. NEC (necrotising enterocolitis) is a very serious medical condition, that kills more babies each year, than childhood leukaemia. The best protection is human milk, so donating blood helps to prevent this in susceptible babies (it literally acts like NEC-prevention medicine). Preemies are at extra risk of this condition, as their immune systems are not yet fully developed. Donated human milk is mostly given to babies in intensive care, and also to mums who have cancer, so they can ‘breastfeed’ their child using another woman’s milk.
Visit UK Association of Milk Banking and Heart’s Milk Bank to find out more (there are milk donation banks worldwide, some regional and others national). You will usually be sent milk bottles (better to release the fat from the milk over bags, babies need high-fat milk to grow).
Donate Your Organs
You can donate some organs while alive, and many people like to do this, especially for relatives (bone marrow etc). You can also register to become a living donor, say to donate a kidney to someone who needs it (we only need one). Obviously you have to be healthy and there are always small risks involved. You can also register to donate your organs (now easier, assumed content, after your death). This can give a heart, major organs or even corneas to people who need them. 3 people die each day, due to not finding an organ in time.
Not only is this good for research, but also helps to reduce animal testing as it’s kinder and more effective. Healthy bodies are needed as much (you need a healthy brain to compare to someone with dementia or Parkinson’s). Donate your body for research (and only give to humane medical research charities).
Donate Toenails to Save Rhinos!
Rhinos are severely endangered, due to poaching for their horns (wrongly thought to have medicinal properties). In fact, the horns are made from keratin, which could fuel cancer cells, making things worse. One scientist says that taking powdered rhino horn for medicine, is as ‘useful as chewing off your own fingernails’. Hence the idea that many have come up with. Because rhinos are poached due to being paid thousands to send the horn to rich buyers;
Experts are now making ‘horns’ from people’s donated fingernails and toenails. Once made, DNA tests can’t tell the difference (a bit like lab-created diamonds versus real ones). The idea is to flood the market with ‘fingernail horns’, to stop people buying the horn: no-one is going to risk paying all that money, if they think they are just buying somebody’s toenails. And if you stop the market, you stop the poaching.
