This week is National Blood Week and the NHS is calling on one million people in England to become regular blood donors to stabilise the nation’s blood supply. Two per cent of the population supply all the blood for NHS patients. Last year just under 800,000 people donated and the blood stocks are not looking healthy.
More than 5,000 donations are needed every day – around 1.8 million donations a year – with more than one million active donors required to help maintain a safe and reliable blood supply.
Right now, there is a critical need for O negative donors – the universal blood type needed for emergencies – and for more donors of Black heritage, who are significantly more likely to have the specific blood types needed to treat sickle cell disease. Just eight per cent of the population have O negative blood but it accounts for 15 per cent of the blood used by hospitals and first responders. And around 50 per cent of people from Black Caribbean and Black African heritage have a blood subtype called RO, which is used primarily to treat people with sickle cell, the country’s fastest growing genetic blood disorder.
The NHS urgently needs to find more O negative and RO donors and is urging the public to come and give blood, find out if they have the high-demand blood types and help save more lives.
You can give blood in one of the NHS’s 27 town and city donor centres - Luton and Cambridge are the two nearest to North Bedfordshire - or using the mobile teams which collect blood at community venues such as church halls. You can register now and book an appointment online at www.blood.co.uk or by calling 0300 123 23 23.
