Donating blood plasma - a personal experience

During LGBTQ+ Pride month, our Customer Experience Design Manager, Ben Bourton-Payne writes about why it’s important for him to regularly donate blood plasma.

As a gay man, I was completely barred from donating blood for the first 21 years of my adult life – but in 2021, a landmark change to the rules meant that everyone is now asked the same questions before donating and treated the same, regardless of sexual orientation.

I donated whole blood twice, before switching to donate blood plasma in December 2021. When you donate ‘whole blood’, men can donate every 12 weeks and women every 16 weeks. This is because men generally have higher iron levels than women – and iron is really important to keep the body functioning well. But with plasma, everyone can donate every two weeks, as the red blood cells are separated and returned to you during the donation – and the plasma you donated is regenerated within just 48 hours!

Going every two weeks works for me – I can find the spare time and I live quite close to one of three donor centres in the UK. It means I can make up for 20 years of lost donation time too!?Recently, I made my 25th donation – which meant I was awarded a much sought after Gold Donor Card, which can take years to achieve by donating whole blood.?And over Easter, my husband Mark joined me for his first plasma donation too – it makes for an interesting date night!

‘Liquid gold’, as plasma is often called, is the golden-coloured fluid that carries all the blood cells and components around the body, and contains a large number of proteins and substances which are used to make life saving medicine - like the one my best friend received a few years ago when he was incredibly poorly with Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy (CIDP).

Another condition that is treated with plasma-based medicine is sickle cell disorder. Each year, 250 babies are born with it. If you're of Black African or Black Caribbean heritage, you're more likely to have an important blood type that is used to treat sickle cell. Thousands more Black donors are needed to give blood so people with sickle cell get the best treatment – so please spread the word!

There are three plasma donor centres in the UK (with hopefully more to come) in Birmingham, Reading and Twickenham. The whole process takes about an hour in total – maybe a little more on your first visit. They’ll need to check the veins in your arms are suitable – it’s a slightly bigger needle than normal, but you’ll barely notice the difference.

If you’re not near a plasma donation centre, you can still donate whole blood at your nearby blood donor centre. O negative, B negative and A negative donors are especially needed, as they are low on these blood types at the moment.

Find out more about donating plasma