Neil’s Donation Story

Neil Standring, 52, donated blood for the first time in 2020 at his local donor centre in West London. Neil’s motivations behind donating blood come from his daughter, Elen, who was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), a form of blood cancer, in 2016 when she was only 11-years-old. Throughout Elen’s 20-month course of treatment, she regularly required blood and platelet transfusions, which were essential for her recovery.

When Elen described how blood transfusions benefitted her during her treatment, she said:

“Blood transfusions were vital for me. The feeling when you do not have enough blood in your body is horrible. You're weak, you're tired and you have constant nosebleeds as well as fainting. Blood transfusions allowed me not to feel like this and to actually be able to go about my day-to-day life.” 

Neil could see the benefit these transfusions had for his daughter, and he always felt so grateful and slightly in awe of all of the anonymous people who donated blood so that people like Elen could receive blood transfusions when they most needed it. 

Following Elen’s recovery from ALL, Neil had always wanted to give back and sign up to donate. Like many, he had the initial perception that the process of donating blood would be a hassle, time-consuming and difficult. However, when Neil heard about Give Blood 4 Good and Patrick’s legacy to encourage more people to donate blood, he knew that it was time to get over the first hurdle and book a donation. Neil recounts his first donation as being much simpler than he initially anticipated and extremely rewarding; the fact that his donation only took six minutes was also a welcome surprise. Since then, he has encouraged friends and family to do the same and donate blood.

After his donation, Neil found out that his blood type was A++. The second plus sign in his blood type means that Neil’s blood contains the Ro subtype; a rare blood group of which only 2% of donors in England have. There are some medical conditions, such as sickle cell disease, where people will require blood transfusions for the rest of their lives. For these people, it is so important that they are given more extensively matched blood to reduce the risk of a negative transfusion reaction. Currently, there are not enough donors with the Ro subtype to meet the demand of those who need it, which is increasing by 10-15% every year. To ensure that these people can receive the best possible blood match, there is an urgent need for more people to come forward and start donating blood. The only way to find out if you have this rare blood type is by donating blood; this is why it is so important to do so and find out your blood type, as it could be in more demand than you think.

Given Neil’s rare blood type, NHS Give Blood would like Neil to donate blood as often as possible; they have even given him their hotline number so that he can get a priority booking every 12-weeks. Knowing that his blood type is so rare, Neil is motivated to continue to donate regularly. After his first donation, Neil got a text from NHS Give Blood to tell him where it had gone; he found out that his blood donation was given to someone at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, which was extremely fitting, as this is where Elen received her treatment for ALL.

We’d like to thank Neil and Elen for sharing their experiences and showing us firsthand how important blood donations are. To find out your blood type and save or improve up to three lives, sign up to donate today by going to the link below.

References 

NHS Blood and Transplant. Give Blood: The Ro subtype explained. Available at: https://www.blood.co.uk/why-give-blood/demand-for-different-blood-types/the-ro-subtype-explained/. Last accessed March 2021.

NHS Blood and Transplant. Give Blood: Ro Blood - What is the Ro subtype and why is it important? Available at: https://www.blood.co.uk/why-give-blood/demand-for-different-blood-types/ro-blood/. Last accessed March 2021.