First in a generation

For the first time in 25 years, NHS patients are receiving lifesaving medicines made from plasma given by blood and plasma donors in England.

We have relied on imports of these medicines for a generation, but thanks to donors and staff we are now establishing our own supply.

Plasma makes up 55% of our blood and contains antibodies which strengthen or stabilise the immune system. Donated plasma can be made into medicine that saves and improves lives.

Around 17,000 people a year are treated for life-limiting illnesses with immunoglobulin – a medicine made from donated plasma.

Emma Armstrong is one of those people.

Just a month after strolling across the white sands of Aruba on her honeymoon, Emma suddenly started feeling pins and needles in her hands. The feeling quickly spread, accompanied by panic, to the rest of her body, before she found herself unable to move properly, falling over if she tried to stand up.

Having been perfectly healthy only four days previously, Emma was put in an induced coma. When she woke up, she was paralysed.

"The doctors thought I wasn't going to make it because of what my body had been through," says Emma. "By the time I came around, everyone was so relieved."

Emma had developed Guillain-Barré syndrome, where the immune system attacks the nervous system, causing numbness and severe muscle weakness. It can be especially life-threatening when the lung muscles are affected.

As well as immunoglobulin, Emma was treated with plasma exchanges, and her condition started to improve.

"At first I was able to move a finger," she says. "I started to get sensitivity back. After 11 weeks in a hospital bed, I had no strength, and I had to do a lot of physio. But my body had started to work again."

The NHS estimates that by the end of 2025, up to 23% of the country's demand for immunoglobulin and 80% of albumin, which is used in childbirth, trauma, and to treat liver conditions, will be met through UK plasma collection.Plasma can be donated at one of three dedicated plasma donor centres in Birmingham, Reading and Twickenham.

We also collect smaller amounts of plasma from blood donations given across the country, so if you can't make it to one of our plasma donor centres, you can still help us collect plasma by giving blood.

"Without donors, people like me wouldn't get the treatment they need," says Emma. "It just makes such a difference. Without it, I would be just a shell.

"It's such good news that we're making this treatment again."