That’s funny because I’ve had petite women under a hundred pounds tell me that they were not ALLOWED to donate blood. And it was longer ago than that.
I couldn’t donate blood until I was over 110 pounds. I was in my 30’s before I got over 110.
I know... she was heavily pressured even though underweight, the kids were made to feel like “heroes” to nodate blood, plus given other incentives that I can’t remember.
My uncle received an embossed and framable letter from Queen Elizabeth thanking him for his public service after his 100th blood donation. I was determined to get one of those so I participated in my first blood donor drive at university that fall. I was a stick figure of a girl. They asked me how much I weighed and I said 125 pounds because I’d heard them asking the same question to other stick figures. I fainted just as the bag filled. When I came to, a very stern nurse was hovering over me demanding to know how much I really weighed. My boyfriend in the bed next to me called out that I weighed 97 pounds. Nurse Ratched took my new donor card and tore it up and said I needed to be 125 pounds so I wouldn’t faint. And that was the end of that.
back in my younger, skinnier days, if you were below 110 # it was questionable if you could donate or if your BP was much lower than that....I was thin at one time and always had low BP.....those were the days...