NHS urges Britons to donate ‘liquid gold’ for life-saving medicines | UK | News

The NHS is urging more people to donate “liquid gold” as Britain ramps up production of plasma for life-saving drugs. Plasma is the liquid component that makes up 55% of blood and carries red cells, white cells, platelets and important proteins throughout the body. Antibodies found in plasma can be turned into medicine for people with rare diseases who cannot produce enough of their own antibodies.

The use of donor plasma to make medicines was banned in the United Kingdom in 1998 as a precaution against Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), which is related to mad cow disease. The disease was spread primarily by consuming beef contaminated with prions (abnormal proteins) from cattle with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. It has also been transmitted through blood injections, with five cases identified in the United Kingdom. For more than two decades the NHS has relied on imports from abroad of products including immunoglobulins, which can boost the immune systems of people with rare diseases.

The ban was finally lifted five years ago and patients started receiving drugs made from UK plasma again in March 2025.

As the health service ramps up local supplies, Express visited a processing center in London where staff are working around the clock to separate whole blood donations into their components.

Jan Majkowski, plasma performance and efficiency lead at NHS Blood and Transplant’s (NHSBT) Colindale site, said spare plasma should have been burned beforehand.

He explained: “In the past we could produce red cells and platelets but couldn’t use the plasma for drugs; that was heartbreaking. We don’t need to cremate them anymore and everything, all parts of whole blood, are used.”

Donated plasma is used in two ways: directly in hospitals, for example to stop bleeding from trauma or surgery, or in the production of medicines such as immunoglobulins.

Currently around 93% of plasma collected by the NHS is filtered from whole blood donations. The remaining 7% comes from direct plasma donations, which NHSBT hopes to increase by opening new donor centers in the coming years.

Alastair Hunter, NHSBT’s head of pharmaceutical plasma supply operations, said: “Plasma is liquid gold. It is as vital to patient health in the UK as treatments derived from other elements of blood donation.”

At Colindale, whole blood donations are processed in a large production area where staff take meticulous steps to separate valuable components. Red cells are used to treat anemia and blood loss, platelets can stop bleeding, and white cells can be given to patients suffering from fatal infections.

Approximately 1,560 pints of freshly donated blood were due to arrive on the day we visited. A whiteboard displayed production targets for each component.

At one station, we watched as packets of blood that had already been filtered to remove white cells were loaded into a centrifuge and spun at 3,879 revolutions per minute. The speed separates red blood cells from plasma without damaging them.

When the bags appeared, a layer of golden plasma formed over the red cells. A machine then pressed each package to force the plasma into a separate bag.

Plasma must be frozen at -20C within 72 hours of donation and can be stored for up to three years. But red cells can only be kept for 35 days at 4°C, so the NHS needs a steady flow of donors throughout the year.

Once the plasma bags have passed through all the necessary stations, they are stored in a -40C freezer room (lower temperature is more energy efficient).

Plasma for medications is then packaged into boxes on pallets. Freezer trucks transport them to a cold storage facility in Reading before they are collected by Swiss healthcare firm Octapharma, the NHS’s chosen fractionator.

In Austria, Germany and Sweden, advanced stages have been completed, including fractionation, which means separating plasma into components and converting them into drugs. The finished products are then shipped back to the UK for use by NHS patients.

These drugs are a lifeline for people like Kes Buckley, 60, who was diagnosed with a rare type of blood cancer called myelo dysplastic syndrome in his 30s.

After a stem cell transplant, he developed graft-versus-host disease, which occurs when transplanted cells attack the recipient’s tissues. Kes takes steroids and immune-suppressing medications that make him prone to infection.

The Church of England priest from Charlton undergoes monthly intravenous immunoglobulin injections to boost his immune system and prevent serious infections. He was one of the first patients to start receiving immunoglobulin made from donors in the UK in March.

He said: “I cannot express my gratitude enough to everyone who donated blood or plasma. My life has been saved time and again thanks to the generous nature of selfless strangers.”

Kes added that the donors gave him “precious time” to see his daughter grow up and host his four grandchildren. He said: “I wish I could bottle all this generosity and kindness and share it with the world.”

Plasma production for pharmaceuticals is a complex process with numerous checks to ensure quality and safety. All of this is necessary to reduce the UK’s dependence on imported materials, which largely come from the US.

Estimates suggest that increasing domestic supply could save the NHS £5-10 million a year. The healthcare service began scaling up its plasma supply chain during the pandemic, trialling convalescent plasma collected from people who have recovered from Covid as a treatment.

Plasma import also became difficult due to border restrictions during the epidemic. “We started talking to partners in Europe and thought we should also have our own plasma production,” Mr. Majkowski said.

The ban was lifted in 2021 after rigorous scientific review showed no confirmed cases of vCJD transmission through plasma-derived drugs.

More than 2,200 patients have since been treated with plasma medicines from UK donations. The NHS is currently 80% self-sufficient in the production of albumin, used to treat serious burns, major injuries, infections or liver disease, and 25% self-sufficient in intravenous immunoglobulin.

Mr Hunter said it was “wonderful” to see the NHS using homegrown ingredients again, but the health service wanted to go further.

He added: “NHS England’s aim is to increase the percentage of self-sufficiency over the years to give us greater internal resilience.

“The benefit to patients is that plasma drugs are scarce. There are patients who are prescribed treatment every four weeks but are treated every six weeks or longer due to shortages.”

“Additional supply allows evaluation of whether we can better align these treatment windows with what is best for the patient.”

NHSBT has three donor centers in Birmingham, Reading and Twickenham where plasma can be filtered alone from donor blood.

Mr Hunter said: “We are pretty much at the same point with plasma derived from whole blood… so our expansion will come from the opening of new sourcing donor centres.

“Our organization is about saving and improving lives. The work we’ve done over the last five years directly delivers on this. It’s amazing what we’ve achieved; in six months our plasma has treated 2,200 patients. It’s amazing.”

He added: “We want people to continue to donate whole blood, that’s essential, but we also want them to come and donate plasma specifically. Please donate plasma.”

‘Selfless donors changed my life’

Samantha Bloomfield remembers struggling with colds, chest and urinary tract infections from a young age, often requiring antibiotic treatment.

The 55-year-old was diagnosed with Common Variable Immunodeficiency at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds in 2011.

She said: “The consultant told me I didn’t have an adequate immune system to fight off any infection. He was even surprised there weren’t any other bugs floating around because my antibody levels were so low.”

Samantha, who works as an electrical wholesaler, began receiving monthly immunoglobulin infusions (IVIG).

Each infusion lasts around two hours as you sit and enjoy a cup of tea and “a biscuit if I’m lucky”. Samantha said: “I don’t think I’ve had any chest infections since then.

“I had to get a few immunoglobulin injections to boost my immunity and now, since I still can’t produce antibodies and antibodies don’t last long, I’m going back to get my supplements so I can fight off the cold like everyone else.

“Those two little hours every four weeks are life-changing for me. It’s truly amazing.”

Samantha, who has now received iVIG from UK donors, added: “Please become a plasma or blood donor if you can. You will change the lives of so many people with your selfless donation.

“Donors are taking the time to do their part, and that is very, very appreciated. Thank you to everyone who donated.”