Give blood plea of mum who lost 42 pints in birth

A woman who needed 42 units of blood after giving birth to her daughter is urging people to become donors as stocks are running "critically" low.

Anna Edwards needed the urgent transfusion due to complications after a Caesarean to deliver daughter Somer Elliott in 2000.

It took her two years to fully recover and she was so grateful to the NHS for saving her life that she joined the Blood Donor Centre in Newcastle as a donor carer in 2008.

Mrs Edwards said giving blood was a "life-saving" gift and she was delighted when her daughter, now 24, joined her to work at the centre in 2021.

Mrs Edwards, who lives in Whitley Bay, was put in an induced coma for 48 hours after the transfusion.

"As fast as the blood was being pumped in, it was coming out and I later found out an artery had been hit," she said.

"My haemoglobin was low, I was blue and almost dead."

The 53-year-old added: "I don't really remember it, but when they brought Somer to meet me my heart rate went up as if I sensed she was there even though I was unconscious.

"It was a worrying time for my family and I was in hospital for five weeks."

Mrs Edwards is urging people to become donors and said her daughter would have been motherless had it not been for 42 people giving blood.

"When I saw the job advert for a donor carer I knew I could do it," she said, adding: "I can't give blood as I've had a transfusion so this is my way of giving back.

"The job is rewarding and I love working with my daughter.

"Sometimes people become donors because they've lost someone and it can be hard to hear."

Supplies of blood have improved since the service was put on an "amber alert" in July, but the NHS has said donors are still needed throughout the North East and Cumbria.

Sessions in church halls, hotels and smaller venues throughout the region fill quickly but the Newcastle centre in Holland Drive still has 3,500 unfilled slots in October and November.

NHS Blood and Transplant deputy CEO Wendy Clark said the service was "enormously grateful" to all those who had donated but it needed to "keep up the momentum".

Miss Elliott, who lives in Grangetown, Sunderland, said: "If it wasn't for donors I wouldn't have a mam.

"People take time out of their day to do this amazing thing and they keep coming back."

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