A MUM who needed plasma medicine to save her life, and help save her baby’s life, has met a plasma donor for an NHS campaign video going live today, to boost donor numbers in London.
Lauren Abery, 42, from Enfield, needed immunoglobulin medicine to stop her body attacking itself and putting her health, and her unborn baby’s health, at serious risk.
She met Carreen Johnson, 49, from Twickenham, who is a regular plasma donor at London’s plasma donor centre, which is also in Twickenham.
Their meeting is shown in a heartwarming new NHS Blood and Transplant campaign video, going live today to help boost plasma donor numbers. There are currently around 2,000 active plasma donors in London. However NHSBT needs around 4,000 plasma donors at the centre.
Carreen, a maths teacher, who started donating plasma because a family member donated, said: “Meeting Lauren and baby Evie was amazing, really special. It brought the whole process full circle. You can see where your plasma goes.
“It was a once in a lifetime experience and Evie is gorgeous.
“Meeting Lauren just brought home even more how important it is to donate. It’s made me really try to recruit other people to get them to donate as well.
“I would say to anyone out there to try donation – you are potentially saving someone’s life. It gives an amazing feeling afterwards. I am lucky enough to be healthy and I can help other people.”
Lauren, an Executive TV producer, had a disorder called idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP). Her immune system started attacking her own platelets, tiny cell fragments which help the blood to clot.
Her platelet levels have at times dropped to less than one per cent of normal levels, which can lead to serious internal bleeds.
She needed regular infusions of immunoglobulin, a medicine which contains the antibodies of plasma donors. The medicine helped her immune system to stabilise. Lauren received it through her pregnancy and baby Evie also received immunoglobulin after delivery in May 2022.
Lauren said: “I was so excited to meet Carreen. It really meant a lot to me. Whenever I had treatment, I thought about the people who donated.
“Without people like Carreen donating I wouldn’t be here and I wouldn’t have a healthy baby. The only treatment I seem to respond to very marginally is immunoglobulin. It’s lifesaving. It got me thinking about how I can help, and I hope people donated plasma.”
Lauren told Carreen: “It’s so amazing to meet you that I don’t think I can put it into words.”
Supplies of immunoglobulin are under pressure around the world and plasma donation in London will bolster availability of the medicine in England. Around 3,900 people from London receive immunoglobulin each year.
NHS Blood and Transplant has been directed to take donations to bolster long term immunoglobulin supplies to NHS hospitals in the face of international supply pressures.
England relied on imported immunoglobulin for more than 20 years as a precaution against vCJD but the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said last year that plasma from UK donors can again be used for immunoglobulin. As well as taking plasma donations, NHSBT can also recover plasma from blood donations.
Around 3,900 people from London receive medicines made from immunoglobulins every year.
Christina Leaver, manager of London’s plasma donor centre in Twickenham in Regal House on London Road, said: “Please register to donate plasma in London – you have a medicine in you which will save lives.”
Visit www.blood.co.uk/plasma or search ‘donate plasma’.
