NHS Blood and Transplant are urging people in Bedfordshire to give blood as new targets reveal 1,000 new donors are needed in the region to save lives over the next year.*
Nationally one million more blood donors are needed over the next five years to ensure patients receive the right type of blood to save and improve their lives, with a particular need for Black African, Black Caribbean and younger donors.
The five-year Blood Service Strategy, published today at the start of National Blood Week, sets ambitious plans to recruit up to a million new donors and double the number of regular donors with the rarest blood types. This will ensure better matched blood types for patients in the future and reduce health inequalities.
Most people know the main blood types – O positive (35 per cent of the population), O negative (13 per cent), A positive (30 per cent), A negative (8 per cent), B positive (8 per cent), B negative (2 per cent), and AB positive (2 per cent).
But the public is less familiar with the many sub-types that can provide an even better match to improve their treatment.
There is a particular urgency for more donors of Black African and Black Caribbean ethnicity to treat people with sickle cell. Sickle cell is the fastest growing genetic blood disorder in the UK and mostly affects people of Black heritage.
It requires regular transfusions – most often with the specific blood sub type Ro. Most patients are children, and demand for Ro blood is projected to double from 2016/17 – 2025/26. Fifty five percent of Black blood donors have the Ro subtype compared to 2.4% of donors from other ethnicities.
Attend a What’s Your Blood Type event or register today and book an appointment by visiting www.blood.co.uk, downloading the GiveBloodNHS app or by calling 0300 123 23 23.
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