ONE HUNDRED people have booked to roll their sleeves up in Birmingham to donate plasma this week.
NHS Blood and and Transplant (NHSBT) say that is nearly double the number of people they saw each week at the New Street donation centre last month.
NHSBT said the increase in appointments came from bookings by people who’d expressed an interest in donating but not yet made an appointment.
Plasma is made into immunoglobulin, a medicine used to save the lives of people with rare immune disorders.
Around 4,000 people from the West Midlands are treated with immunoglobulin each year.
An NHSBT spokesperson said: “More and more people need plasma medicines, so it’s fantastic news that we have so many people in to donate this week. Donation is safe and our team will make you feel welcome.”
Plasma can be donated at one of three dedicated plasma centres, Birmingham, Reading and Twickenham. A machine gradually filters a donation out of your blood.
The donation takes about 45 minutes and the whole visit takes about 1 hour 15 minutes.
Plasma from UK donors could not be used for immunoglobulin medicines between 1998 and 2021, one of the precautions put in place against variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and the NHS relied on imports until then.
To donate call 0300 123 23 23 or visit www.blood.co.uk/plasma.
