Reading makes history as Largest NHS donor centre opens to collect blood, plasma and platelets
With more than 5,000 blood donations needed every day nationally, it’s a major step in reducing the UK’s reliance on imported plasma medicines
A new donor centre in Reading, which will be the first in the country to collect blood, plasma and platelets under one roof, has officially opened.
Reading Donor Centre, based at Reading Bridge House, is NHS Blood and Transplant's (NHSBT) largest donor centre.
It opens its doors on Tuesday 20th October with a celebration attended by the Mayor of Reading, Councillor Paul Gittings.
Henry Firth and Ian Theasby, founders of the plant-based food brand BOSH!, will cut the ribbon.
What the centre offers
The centre covers approximately 11,000 sq ft and is the first of its kind for the organisation.
It has 16 plasma chairs, three blood chairs and three platelet chairs.
There are also three additional chairs to support blood collection during periods of high demand.
Plasma collection began on 12th October and whole blood donations started on 19th October.
Platelet collections are due to follow before the end of the year.
NHSBT said that bringing all three donation types together in one location makes it easier for people in and around Reading to start or continue donating.
Lee Wright, operational support lead for plasma for medicines at NHSBT, said donors will be able to give blood six days a week at various hours of the day.
Mr Wright said: "To offer that under one roof to a really good community like Reading is a really exciting proposition for us."
He said NHSBT did not collect plasma for 25 years before it was able to do so again, and the Reading plasma centre has grown over the three years it has been collecting.
Mr Wright said NHSBT wants to become more self-sufficient in plasma and is working on projects to offer the same experience elsewhere in the country.
Where donations go
Mr Wright said donations from Reading will be manufactured at NHSBT's manufacturing centre in Filton and distributed to wherever they are needed.
He said immunoglobulins made from plasma and platelet donations are sent across the country, and he understands about 17,000 patients currently take them.
Whole blood tends to stay more local, he said, but it is also moved around to where it is needed.
Mr Wright told us about 5,000 whole blood donations are needed every day to meet the need for transfusions.
He said: "Platelet donations are incredibly important. They have such short shelf lives because of the nature of the donation that we need to see a nice constant trickle throughout the year."
About 4% of the population donate, and 1.6 million whole blood donations need to be taken each year.
Speaking about the patients who receive the medicines, Mr Wright said: "The medicine changes their life, improves their lives."
A patient's story - 'It has just completely revolutionised my life'
Jill Jones, who has received immunoglobulin infusions every three weeks since 2006, spoke to us ahead of the opening on behalf of the patients who rely on the treatment.
She was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2004.
After treatment, which included a stem cell transplant, she was found to have a primary immune deficiency, which means she cannot make her own antibodies to a range of diseases and infections.
Ms Jones said that before she started the infusions she was in hospital about once a month for intravenous antibiotics.
She said: "Since then, I've only been hospitalised once and that was with Covid, but I have not been hospitalised at all for having infections."
She said: "It has just completely revolutionised my life."
Ms Jones said she was originally told the plasma used for her treatment came from America because UK-donated plasma could not be used.
She said that a few years ago she was warned there might be a shortage, and she could have to have fewer doses, smaller doses or longer gaps between them, which terrified her.
Ms Jones said: "The fact that we can now have UK donated plasma is just amazing."
Speaking about donors, she said: "Donors, they don't have to go there (the donation centre). They're going there because they're good people who want to do something for other people in their community."
She said she hopes to meet some of the plasma donors in person at the opening to thank them.
A regular donor's story - 'I'll stop when they stop taking it'
Jake Carpenter, a 28-year-old donor, said he started giving blood about 10 years ago after seeing a donation van outside his local leisure centre.
He has made 13 blood donations, then switched to plasma a few ago and has since made 56 plasma donations, about one every two weeks.
Mr Carpenter said the staff and the packets of mini Cheddars he gets after donating keep him going back, as does hearing from people who receive the medicine.
He hopes to donate platelets later this year when they become available at Reading, which would mean he has given all three types.
Asked how long he plans to keep donating, Jake said: "I'll stop when they stop taking it."