NHS Blood and Transplant service needs your help

The NHS Blood and Transplant service desperately needs your help. In April, they began collecting blood plasma from donation to make vital antibody-based medicines and they urgently need more people to make donations.

These medicines – called immunoglobulins will help thousands of people with immune diseases. People like 26-year-old Natalie Beeton from Borehamwood who after experiencing a severe case of Glandular Fever now has a badly damaged immune system.  This means she can’t protect herself infections and has to have a treatment every six weeks to help keep her alive and protect her from serious illness. Natalie will need this medicine for the rest of her life.

There are many different types of conditions the medicines will be used to treat, including those with a low mature red blood cell count which can happen after radiotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer treatment.

Local football associations in Greater Manchester are already helping patients like Natalie, by helping to raise awareness of the need for more people to consider making a blood plasma donation by communicating details to their clients and members of staff.

Due to the size and structure of veins needed to make a donation, we are currently inviting males age 18-65 to consider giving blood plasma at their local centre based at Bolton BL1 2AX and Manchester M13 9LL if that’s more convenient for people to get to.

Donating plasma is safe and easy, the plasma is filtered out of circulating blood by an apheresis machine and the red blood cells are returned to the donor. Plasma donation is very similar to blood donation, they both help people, just in different ways.

By taking a few simple steps to help you will be making a real and lasting impact on the lives of so many patients.

To find out more about blood plasma donation you can visit www.blood.co.uk and to register to make a donation you can call on 0300 123 23 23.