Plasma is used to make immunoglobulin, a medicine used to treat many rare diseases in immunology, neurology, and more. 

Only around 25% of appointments at Birmingham plasma donor centre in New Street are being filled each day. 

NHS Blood and Transplant needs more people to start donating plasma, to build stocks.

The antibodies in these medicines can protect people from infection or they can stabilise the immune system if it’s attacking the patient’s own body. 

Around 4,000 people from the West Midlands are treated with immunoglobulin each year.

Margaret Bennett, 69, from Harborne in Birmingham, is supporting the appeal after receiving plasma medicine for more than 20 years.  

The retired teacher was diagnosed with a rare Primary Immunodeficiency in 2003 - her body can’t make enough antibodies to fight infections. 

She added: “The problem is that not enough people know about plasma donation. It’s not something which is really out there in the public consciousness yet.” 

Plasma from UK donors could not be used for immunoglobulin medicines between 1998 and 2021, one of the precautions put in place against variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The restriction was lifted by the Government in 2021, based on independent advice from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The NHS has relied on imports from abroad – mainly America  - but this has meant high prices and pressure on supplies.

The plasma now being donated in Birmingham is being stored, ready to be made into a medicine called immunoglobulin when a full manufacturing and supply chain is in place. 

Plasma can be donated at one of three dedicated plasma centres, Birmingham, Reading and Twickenham. A machine gradually filters a donation out of your blood. The donation takes about 45 minutes and the whole visit takes about 1 hour 15 minutes.

To donate plasma in Birmingham, call 0300 123 23 23 or visit blood.co.uk/plasma