Give Blood, Save Lives: A family with Highland roots forever thankful to Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) donors
Three women from the same family have all received the perfect gift of life saving blood transfusions.
Baby Isabella Webster will celebrate her first Christmas thanks to receiving an emergency transfusion when she was born.
She followed her gran Donna (61) and mum Lauren (35) who all have Scotland’s blood donors to thank for being alive.
Donna, who grew up in the Highlands and now lives in Dundee, said: “Isabella was born in January 2024 and received emergency blood straight after her delivery. I received blood after the birth of Lauren.
“Lauren then needed blood aged 15 due to sepsis. She has now become a mother herself to baby Isabella.
“This means we have three happy and healthy generations in our family, all thanks to blood donors.”
Given the drama around her little granddaughter’s birth she unsurprisingly added: “Looking forward to Isabella's first Christmas this year is particularly poignant.
“We’d like to remind donors that your gift keeps on giving for many years – or in our case many generations.
“We cannot thank you all enough. We would like to encourage everyone to consider giving blood, platelets or plasma this Christmas."
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Debbie McNaughton, associate director of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS), said: “There are currently 96,726 blood donors in Scotland.
“Whilst we are very grateful to them, our donor base still has not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels.
“It is very important we welcome more new donors.
“We’d also love to welcome younger donors – you can start giving blood age 17, but we notice up to 50 per cent fewer 17-year-olds coming forward from five years ago.
“As Scotland faces an ageing population, this poses a significant challenge.”
And she added: “This year we’re also excited to launch an additional campaign for people to donate plasma for medicines, which can be used to treat more than 50 diseases, including babies with haemolytic disease – an inherited condition which affects red blood cells.
“Currently, we have 800 plasma donors in Scotland, and we hope to welcome another 1000 plasma donors in the next 12 months.”
Plasma can be donated at the blood donor centre in Inverness as well as others in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
“As we move into thoughts of New Year resolutions, there can be no better commitment to make,” Debbie said.
“Maintaining a safe and regular supply of blood to hospitals is our top priority.
“The need for blood does not take a rest, and we will be collecting blood on Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and Hogmanay.
“We are asking people to take time out of their busy schedules on these dates.
“We look forward to welcoming you soon.”
