Blood donor centres report ‘incredible’ public response
With about 100 people outside one building on Brown Street in the city centre, staff have been trying to accommodate as many walk-ins as possible.
Manchester’s blood donor centres experienced an “incredible” response from the public in the wake of the terror attack in the city.
A little over 10 hours after a lone suicide bomber detonated a homemade device in the foyer of the Manchester Arena, just as thousands of young people were leaving a concert by US pop star Ariana Grande, queues started to form outside Blood and Transplant buildings.
“In terms of a response it has been incredible,” said Richard Shortland, the north’s head of marketing for NHS Blood and Transplant.
“We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of people coming forward and it is very typical of the Greater Manchester people to respond so positively to something so horrific by wanting to contribute and wanting to do such a great thing in terms of donating blood.
“We had over 100 people lined up outside before we even opened the doors this morning and we’ve seen a good stream of donors since we opened the doors this morning. We’ve had a mixture of existing donors who are aware in these incidents there is a need to come forward and they have responded really well.”
He added: “We’ve had donors booked in who have kept their appointments but we’ve had a lot of new donors wanting to start donating as well and we are grateful for that. The Mancunian spirit is alive and well. Everyone is really keen to get involved and wanting to do something positive.”
With blood stocks high there was no immediate drain on resources following Monday’s incident and every hospital had what it required to deal with casualties.
But with some attendees having to be turned away from centres on Tuesday Mr Shortland said the challenge now was to retain as many new donors as possible for the future.
“We had to move a large quantity of blood around to where it was needed so that was mobilised overnight and everyone being looked after in hospitals in Manchester all had what they needed,” he added.
“But it wouldn’t have been there if it had not been for the generosity of the donors who stick with us long term.
“It is great people come forward today but really we need them not to forget about us next week or next month.”
He added: “We are particularly interested in O negative donors. We’d like existing O negative donors to come forward but in addition we always look for new donors, new young donors and young black donors as they have a high chance of being in a very minority group that we particularly need.
“If anyone had not been able to come along today we’d still love to see them.
“If they go to the website blood.co.uk it will allow them to register and book an appointment and make sure we see them in an organised process.”
