PATIENTS around the country are receiving lifesaving medicine made from the plasma of blood donors in Barnsley for the first time this week.
This historic milestone marks the first time in a quarter of a century plasma is being used to make life-saving medicines for NHS patients, reducing reliance on imports.
These lifesaving medicines can only be made from human blood.
Plasma makes up 55 per cent of our blood and contains antibodies which strengthen or stabilise the immune system.
The antibodies are separated out and made into medicines which treat people with life-limiting illnesses such as immune deficiencies.
Over the past three years, plasma from blood donors in South Yorkshire and across England has been stored up, and it has now been made into medicines through a weeks long manufacturing process.
The first patients began to receive the medicine yesterday.
Over the past three years, blood donors in South Yorkshire have supplied around 22,000 litres of plasma, enough to make around 10,000 bottles of immunoglobulin, which is enough to save or improve around 280 lives a year.
Michelle Grainger, 58, from Wath-upon-Dearne, said immunoglobulin saved her life from a disorder that left her paralysed from the neck down.
She developed Guillain-Barré syndrome in 2005.
Michelle said: “I know firsthand how these medicine help save lives.
“It’s a relief to know we’re now making it from local blood donations too.
“It’s very expensive for the NHS to import.
“I am so grateful to everyone who donates blood.
“You are not just helping people with your red blood cells - now the plasma in your blood donation is helping people too.”
Her illness made her immune system start attacking her own nerve cells.
“On New Year’s Eve, I found myself struggling to walk from the grocery store.
“That night I went to bed and I was in bed for four days.
“I deteriorated that quick.”
She was taken to hospital doctors said she needed to go into an induced coma.
“Michelle declined, fearing she would never wake up again.
She added: “I can remember them saying I needed immunoglobulin as part of the initial treatment.
“I was told I could only have four or five bottles but I had eight in the end.
“I remember them telling me that it was £4,000 a bottle.
“I’d never heard of it before.
“It saved my life.”
Daniel Cooper, NHSBT assistant director for blood donation operations, said: “Thanks to our amazing blood and plasma donors in South Yorkshire and across England, for the first time in a quarter of a century, patients are now receiving plasma medicines made from donations taken in England.
“We need more blood donors to help make more of these medicines and build UK self-sufficiency.
“Your donation is now helping save lives in new ways. Go to blood.co.uk to become a donor.”
Dr Susan Walsh, the chief executive officer of Immunodeficiency UK, said: “This is a historic moment - patients from South Yorkshire can now get lifesaving and life-improving immunoglobulin medicine made from the plasma of UK blood and plasma donors.
“Immunoglobulins recognise dangerous micro-organisms and help the immune cells to neutralise them.
“It’s a vital treatment for people with immune disorders.
“We urge people in South Yorkshire to try blood donation.
“Your red blood cells will be used as normal.
“But now the blood plasma can also help vulnerable people with immune disorders.”
