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A newsletter on blood donation is the last place you’d usually find me. My whole life I’ve been afraid of blood and, up until a few months back, the idea of donating it was a pipe dream.

With bank holidays and school breaks, April and May are traditionally difficult months to keep a steady supply of blood products to hospitals maintained.

In 2011, I donated a kidney to my husband, as I wanted to give him the chance to live a full and active life again. When my husband was diagnosed with kidney disease, it was a terrible shock.

Calvin was diagnosed with sickle cell disorder at just six months old and holds the record – at two years and eight months – of the longest inpatient stay at University College London Hospital.

Following a motorcycle accident, Andrew Smith’s life was saved after receiving blood. Last year, alongside other amputees, Andrew took on one of the most challenging sea swims in the world.

When he was suddenly diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia in 2021, my late 74-year-old father, Sam Thomas received countless transfusions of red blood cells and platelets.

Live A Day in the Life of NHS Blood and Transplant’s Becci Guest, whose son Mike receives medicines made from donated plasma to treat Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

“Mom was told she had six weeks to live,” explains Steph. “That was 20 years ago. She is now the longest living small-cell lung cancer patient at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.”

Statement from Peter Wyman, Chair, for and on behalf of NHS Blood and Transplant.

More than 50,000 people are alive today due to the incredible gift of organ donation. We are encouraging people to come together to celebrate the gift of life…