Seven years after receiving a lifesaving 42 units of blood after becoming seriously ill while giving birth, South Tyneside teacher Keri Anglin has urged the people of the North East to "do something remarkable" and donate blood.
This comes amid a warning from the NHS Blood and Transplant Service that stocks are particularly low, and calls for people in our area to step up and save lives.
Cleadon mum Keri, 45, almost died while giving birth to her third child Lucy. She suffered a huge bleed during labour and had a placenta increta – meaning her placenta attached itself into her muscle. Her medical notes show she lost a massive 8.18 litres of blood – but also mention an even more terrifying 12 litres.
Read more: 'I gave blood for the first time - it was so easy I can't believe I haven't done it before'
She required 42 units of blood products, including 22 units of blood, 16 units of fresh frozen plasma, two units of cryoprecipitate and two units of platelets. And since then, though she is unable to give blood herself, she has encouraged everyone she knows to do so - and she said this had been incredibly successful.
She said: "When I think about what happened now, it's quite surreal. It's not something I think about too often, but when I do, I'm really aware of how scary it was and what could have happened.
"I would always encourage people to give blood. I think a lot of people might not realise how important giving blood is."
Keri has encouraged friends and family to donate, and said she was delighted that since her own ordeal, some of them had become regular donors. "Many friends hadn't done it before but are now still going, six and a half years on," she said. "If people hadn't donated blood when I needed it, it would have been a completely different story for my family.
"It's so important and saves so many lives. And the feeling of being able to help, being able to give back and save someone must be amazing."
NHS Blood and Transplant is appealing for those in the North East to make giving blood their New Year's Resolution, amid concern that there is not enough O negative and B negative blood in particular on hand to save lives at the moment. The blood donation service has been hit by cancelled appointments over the festive period, and also by rising numbers of potential donors being unable to do so because of catching illnesses like flu.
Any O and B negative blood donors who don’t have a booking are asked to urgently call 0300 303 2096 to find a priority space. The NHS service said there were, at the time of writing, close to 200 available appointments at the Newcastle permanent donor centre, but urged would-be donors to check for cancelled appointments too.
More than half of donors who cancelled their appointments over the last seven days cited sickness as the reason in a survey. and December saw the highest number of cancelled appointments of winter so far, around 16% more, month-on-month.
David Rose, Director of Donor Experience at NHS Blood and Transplant said: "Make a New Year’s Resolution to Give Blood and save three lives. Please book an appointment to donate at Newcastle Donor Centre in the next few days and weeks.
"We are seeing higher than usual cancellations by donors due to seasonal illnesses and holiday disruption. If you are fit and well, please keep your appointment to help us build stocks."
Winter is always a challenging time for blood stocks - which always reach their annual low point in the first week of January. NHS Blood and Transplant aims to hold above six days of blood stocks at any given time.
Newcastle has a permanent donor centre is at Holland Drive, Newcastle, NE2 4NQ. To find out more about giving blood, visit Blood.co.uk. or just search Give Blood in your phone's app store.
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