The hunt for a new generation of blood donors

Students are being encouraged to find out their blood type and become donors as the NHS seeks a new generation of volunteers to help maintain supplies.

NHS Blood and Transplant's community engagement team held a free "What's Your Blood Type?" event at the University of Birmingham this week, with people registering as donors and booking appointments to give blood.

The service needs about 5,000 blood donations every day and a spokesperson said they were particularly keen to increase stocks of O negative and B negative blood.

Third-year pharmacy student Lisa Rumbi Leckey was among those taking part.

"I have always wanted to find it out, but I never have," she said.

"Maybe I am a little bit scared of giving blood. People say they feel faint. I have had blood tests, but I have never thought of doing a big donation."

The test involves a pinprick and four drops of blood. Participants are then given an indication of their likely blood type and information about becoming a donor.

After taking the test, Leckey discovered she was A-negative and booked an appointment to donate.

The event came as NHS Blood and Transplant looks to recruit more young donors.

Figures released by the organisation showed that, for the first time in five years, more regular blood donors were aged over 45 than under 45, while the proportion of donors aged 17 to 24 had almost halved over the previous five years. About 408,000 of the 798,000 regular donors were aged 45 or over.

Hazel Preece, community engagement manager for the service, said: "Due to demand our stocks are a lot lower than we would like, so we are looking for more O negative and B negative stocks."

The organisation said a steady stream of new donors was essential because blood has a limited shelf life and supplies must constantly be replenished to meet demand from hospitals.

The event was run in partnership with the African Caribbean Medical Society Birmingham (ACMS).

The NHS is also seeking more donors of Black heritage, who are more likely to have the blood type needed to treat people with sickle cell disease.

The disease mostly affects people of black heritage and ethnically-matched blood gives the best treatment.

Paula Douglas, a wellbeing officer at the University of Birmingham, said the campus offered a large pool of potential new donors.

"We have nearly 40,000 students and more than 8,000 staff members. That is a huge number of people potentially who can support the NHS in donations," she said.

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