BRADFORD needs 1,000 more blood donors to come forward and fill its empty appointment slots between now and New Year’s Eve.

The centre in Manor Row made the appeal in the run-up to Christmas as its stocks are expected to start to fall because of winter bugs and donors’ booked-up festive diaries.

Yesterday NHS Blood and Transplant chief executive Ian Trenholm was at the centre to give blood and was joined by 34-year-old nurse Laura Woods from Clayton Heights who has given patients hundreds of blood transfusions over the years and whose own life was saved by a blood donor when she had a kidney transplant 12 years ago.

Mrs Woods, who works at Westwood Park Community Hospital, in Bradford, said: “If it wasn’t for the blood I was given during my transplant the surgery might not have been so successful and I would not have had my daughter Phoebe who is eight now.

“I had to have two units of blood during the surgery. Before the surgery it wouldn’t have been possible for me to have a child.

“I’ve seen how vital giving blood is from both angles, a nurse and a patient, and that’s why I’m so passionate about getting others to become donors. It’s life-changing if people can get the donation and is life-threatening if they don’t.

“I’ve seen the difference it makes. I was a nurse in gynaecology where women needed transfusions after major surgery or miscarriages when they had lost lots of blood – a mentally traumatic experience as well as a physical one for many of them.

“I’d urge people to do something really amazing in the run-up to Christmas and fill one of these empty slots in Bradford and give blood.”

There are only two people booked in to give blood on Boxing Day and between Saturday, December 23, and Saturday, December 30, there are 220 empty appointment slots.

Mrs Woods said: “There’s nothing to worry about coming to give blood. It’s quick and easy and the staff are lovely at the centre. They’ll take good care of you.”

In May the NHS Blood and Transplant service in Bradford moved in to historic Kenburgh House after nearly 50 years of being in Rawson Road.

Mr Trenholm said this was a time of year when stocks could fall. “People are busy, there are lots of colds and bugs about, and the weather can put people off. However there is need for lifesaving blood donations 365 days a year,” he said. “We’re urging people to make and keep an appointment.”

MORE TOP STORIES

He said blood was mainly used by maternity and cancer wards but the Bradford centre particularly needed O-type donations and donors from the black and Asian community, to treat patients with sickle cell disease.

He said the Blood and Transplant service was campaigning nationally to get more donors from those ethnic backgrounds.

To make an appointment, go to blood.co.uk