Every picture tells a story

Sarah has seen the best and the worst of people – when she sat in hospital waiting to find out if her son George would live after he had been violently assaulted, it was the "darkest of days."

But she calls the 15 people whose blood saved George's life, "angels."

This is her story:

They say every picture tells a story. This picture is my sign of hope following the darkest of days – it's of me holding my son's hand the day he came off his life support machine in August 2021.

My son was 16 years old and had been seriously assaulted a few days earlier in our local town centre. It was an unprovoked attack by a complete stranger that left him critically ill.

When he arrived at hospital, my son had lost so much blood he had no blood pressure. As well as the paramedics, surgeons, doctors and nurses, 15 selfless people (aka angels) saved his life with the 15 units of blood he needed! They don't know it, but a few days earlier they had given an hour of their time to give blood.

Those 15 people are the reason my son is here today, and the reason I want to tell you on World Blood Donor Day about the amazing gift of life so many of you can give by making 'a date to donate'.

Giving blood takes no more than an hour of your time. It's pain-free and afterwards you get free biscuits (or burn 500 calories if like me that's what you prefer). But the important bit is you can be the reason that a complete stranger gets to have another tomorrow. You can help save a life in an emergency. You can help a cancer patient, a pregnant mother, a new-born baby. The list of people your blood can help is endless. You can be someone's angel and the reason someone's child, partner, friend is still here to hold their hand.

Thanks to those angels, my son is now fit and healthy again. He can no longer give blood but my family and I now all have regular appointments to donate.

In emergency situations like George's, O negative blood is used. O negative can be given safely to people with any other blood type. This is why O negative blood is called 'the universal type'.

To book an appointment to give blood, log in to your online account.