How to donate plasma

Donating plasma is safe and easy. While donating you can sit back and relax knowing you are helping to save lives.

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What happens when you donate plasma?

Donating plasma takes just over an hour. This includes some checks before you donate and having a drink and snack after you donate.

Watch Albert, a regular plasma donor, explain what happens when you donate.

When you arrive, we’ll check if you have any symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19) and you’ll fill in a health questionnaire.

We will review your health questionnaire and check your veins, iron level and pulse.

If there's any reason why you can't donate, we'll explain why and let you know if and when you can donate in the future.

It takes about 35 minutes to donate one bag (700ml) of plasma.

Your blood is collected out of the vein of one arm. A machine separates plasma from red blood cells.

Plasma is collected in a bag and red blood cells are returned to your vein using the same needle.

There's time to rest, have a drink and snack, and book your next appointment.

You can donate plasma as often as every 2 weeks, if you wish.

This is more often than blood donation where men have to wait 12 weeks and women 16 weeks between donations.