To ask you to donate blood especiallyif youre black??

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DD (18) gave her 5th pint today. She hadn't planned to. In fact she got back from 3 weeks travelling at about 2am then woke at 10am to four increasingly urgent messages from the blood service.

It's only 8 weeks since she last donated and it should usually be 16 week gap but they're desperate for stock and they're likely to ask her back again in 8 weeks.

DD has ro subtypes in her blood. This means her blood can be used to treat sickle cell anemia but only 2% of doners have it. DD is white but the ro subtypes are 10 times more likely to occur in people of Afro Caribbean origin.

I can not give blood for medical reasons or I'd have been rolling up my sleeves today but if you can do it please do.

RO subtypes

I don't understand this.
I'm o negative, anybody can have my blood so it's super sought after, and I can still only give every 16 weeks. No exceptions.

Exactly this. I've made 2 appts in the past month to give blood, a few days later receive texts to say sorry my appts have been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

You can only give every 16 weeks. There are no exceptions as I've tried to donate sooner. Strange how they allowed her too.

My long awaited appointment was also cancelled today with 3 hours notice. This is the second time it's happened. Not impressed.

Where I live it's 8 weeks, I think the NHS use a very long recovery period.
I'm o- and when I saw the appeals recently I signed up to donate in London (I'm here for the summer and a previous UK donor).

I'm sure I read somewhere that due to the stock crisis they have lowered the necessary time between donations, but I might be wrong.

It's 8 weeks for men. 16 weeks for women. The risks of anaemia in women means they cannot donate any sooner that 16 weeks. My DSis is a blood nurse and said these are the rules.

Rhesus negative people (like my son and i) apparently should donate blood. Unfortunately I can't at the moment I'm pregnant and have low blood pressure

Interesting

They were very pushy about getting her to donate today. I think I'm going to encourage her to take iron supplements for a bit.

It does say in the link that they do sometimes contact people with Ro types to donate outside their usual cycle if stocks are low so maybe that's it.

It's 12 weeks for men and 16 weeks for women.

I took part in a large trial to see how often people could safely give blood. The conclusion was that they should stick with 12 weeks for men and 16 for women in normal circumstances because the risks to donors of more frequent donation were higher than they were happy with. However, in times of real emergency they could reduce the interval.
www.donorhealth-btru.nihr.ac.uk/studies/interval-study/

It sounds as if the Ro blood shortage is so severe that they've pulled the emergency cord.

The UK doesn't need as much blood as we used to: fewer accidents, more conservative use of transfusions, keyhole surgery. The one need that hasn't reduced is sickle cell, and that generally requires Black donors.

I used to but can't anymore for various reasons, I wish I could! (But am O+ which isn't in short supply anyway)

Sorry can someone clarify is Ro different to negative as there’s some cross talk on this thread and am confused.

O+ is in short supply actually. If you can't donate then you can't, but other O+ people reading this post should consider it if possible. It's not a rare type but it's really useful: any rhesus positive person can receive it.

If you're O+ or of course if you're O- and in London, Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham or Manchester and can get to a permanent donation centre then do try.
www.blood.co.uk

Your dd needs to be really careful. I used to donate blood - no health problems, hadn’t ever been anaemic, even in 2 pregnancies which I puked all through.

I gave blood. When making the next appointment, they said they were desperate so wanted me to come sooner than the recommended time. I did. Few weeks after the “too quick” donation and anaemic. I don’t give blood anymore.

Ro is a specific subtype more common in Black populations. It's a more specific subtype, a variation of rhesus positive, and can be O/A/B/AB in the normal way.

As I understand it (not a doctor), for a one-off emergency transfusion they don't bother with subtype matching, but because sickle cell sufferers need pint after pint after pint for years on end they need a more accurate match, and that often means Ro.

Yes, it is different to negative -

www.blood.co.uk/why-give-blood/demand-for-different-blood-types/ro-blood/

I'm Ro, but haven't had any extra requests, I don't live in a very diverse area, which might make a difference (but my blood does go to London sometimes)

@Inlaw Ro is a subtype so for example you night be a positive with ro subtypes.

I believe there are all sorts of things that sit below the X positive / negative categorisation

I used to regularly give blood. My iron stores don't replenish quickly enough now, so I gave up.

I do think more should be done to incentivise people to go. When I first went back in the 90s, you could get hot chocolate and a whole range of drinks. The post donation snacks were high quality choices. One clinic used to have in date magazines to read on the tables.

Last time I went, it was a supermarket own brand basic cup of weak tea and custard creams on a plate.

Well done to your daughter for saving lives!!!

I made an appointment yesterday to donate after a long gap. Couldn’t not after seeing the story of those poor little girls and their lovely teacher.

Thanks for explaining.

@Globules dd gotb2 club biscuits and a decent cup of tea today

A decent cup of tea?! Please tell me where, because all my local centres have been fobbing me off with lemon squash for years now.

Their guidelines have changed so they don't offer hot drinks any more. Apparently hot drinks raise the body's temperature, so you sweat more which leads to some people getting more dehydrated and feeling faint.

I think they have done loads of research over the years to make sure people don't get some of the side effects like feeling faint, because it naturally puts people off donating. That's why you have to drink the big cup of water before you start now.

The big cup of water is to help with the blood flow as well. It does seem to have sped up my normally tardy veins since they started prompting us to do it.

I know the reason why they don't do tea any more, but I'm still sulking because I was always completely fine with having it and never came remotely close to fainting (tbh my blood is probably 75% English Breakfast to start off with).

I've just checked woth her and what she actually said was " NOT EVEN a decent cup of tea but indid get twonclyb biscuits"'

You're all right and I clearly need a hearing test