Yorkshireman with vital rare blood type reaches 100th donation

A Yorkshireman who reached his 100th blood donation earlier this year is encouraging local residents to follow in his footsteps and donate blood.

Robert Boocock, 61, from York, became a regular donor in his early 20s. He is one of less than 20,000 B negative blood donors in England, as B negative is one of the least common ABO blood types.

When Robert was 21 and working for his uncle, he saw him regularly go to donate blood. He asked why.

"I hadn't realised that when I was quite young, my auntie had an operation that went slightly wrong, and she needed over 20 units of blood to make it through.

"That got me thinking, that's 20 people that can only donate once every few months. I thought, I've got spare in my body, so why don't I volunteer?"

Robert found out that his blood type was B negative. Right now, as there are less than 20,000 B negative donors in England, B negative blood stocks are vulnerable to fluctuations.

The NHS has lost almost 1,000 B negative donors in the last year – a significant drop of 5% of the B negative donor base. With only 1,903 B negative donors in Yorkshire and the Humber, the NHS is urging residents to book an appointment at one of the 3 permanent centres in Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield.

By becoming a regular donor, Robert also found out that his blood was suitable to be given to newborns. Newborn babies can only be transfused with blood lacking cytomegalovirus (CMV), a mild and common virus that most people catch as a child.

Robert said:

"Occasionally when I donate, they say this one will be going to the neonatal ward. That's quite a nice thought that it's going straight to a little baby perhaps that doesn't know they need it.”

The NHS needs younger donors who, like Robert 40 years ago, have a whole lifetime of donating ahead of them. Up to 200,000 new blood donors are needed each year to replace those who stop donating, and Robert described donating blood as a "no-brainer".

"I liken donating blood to a bank account, basically. Unless you put some in, how could you rely on there being some there, when you may need it?

"I would just say, don’t even worry about it. Yes, you might feel the needle go in, but when they say it’s a scratch, they mean that.

"You do get a regular mini health check as well - iron levels and that sort of thing."

After 73 donations, Robert's uncle had to stop donating due to health reasons. However, he encouraged Robert to keep going, and 7 years ago Robert achieved his goal of beating his uncle's number.

"Once I passed that, I thought, I'm not going to stop now! Let's see how many I can keep going with, until I no longer can.

"Hopefully that will be for many years to come."

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