A large number of Abingdon people went to Preston Road Community Centre throughout the day to give blood. When I got there, people were seated in 4 rows of chairs waiting their turn. There is an appointment system and the blood service can almost guarantee to get you in and out of the door within an hour – so long as you have an appointment. The ladies behind me were talking about getting chips afterwards. After some discussion, that included the chip shops in Didcot, they decided on the Chinese Takeaway in Reynolds Way. One of them said they did very good chips – better than Smarts.

Eventually I got called and, behind the screens, I was asked a follow up question, on top of the twenty I had already ticked on the questionnaire. It was ‘Have you had sex with anybody who has contracted the Zika virus?’

I answered matter-of-factly that I hadn’t.

The assistant took a small blood sample from my middle finger, and timed the drop as it floated down through green liquid in a test tube. It was a bit slow so she took another sample and tried that. Again, slow.

‘Have you ever had low iron?’

‘ No’ I said.

So she went for some more equipment, and took a larger amount of blood from my right arm. It turned out to be fine. We decided that washing my hands, with soap, before I left the house, had caused the test to fail.

I was then given a large cup of water to drink and got first sat, and then laid back, in one of the swivelling chairs, to give blood. Chap next to me worked out at the gym and the assistant admired his prominent veins.

My blood is not rare – just A+. Giving the blood took about ten minutes.

There followed a nice cup of tea, sitting round a table with other donors. Normally at around that time I recognise a number or people, but on this occasion didn’t see anybody I knew, apart from the assistants.

As I left, 45 minutes after arriving, the four rows of chairs held a new set of Abingdon people, waiting their turn. One of them had left a Brompton bike folded into a small square package just inside the door.