Do you know your blood type?
This Halloween, English Heritage is partnering with NHS Blood and Transplant to offer visitors the chance to discover something truly spine-tingling: their own blood type.
As part of an urgent nationwide appeal for more donors to help boost vital blood stocks, free blood type self-testing kits will be distributed at selected English Heritage sites across the country on 31 October.
With the NHS requiring nearly 5,000 donations every day to support patients and hospitals across England, the initiative aims to encourage more people to register as blood donors and start donating.
Right now there is a particular need for more people with O negative and B negative blood types and for more donors of Black heritage to help sickle cell patients who rely on ethnically matched blood.
‘Our Halloween events always bring history to life in thrilling ways – and this year, we’re proud to add a life-saving twist,’ says Mark Williamson, English Heritage Regional Partnership Manager and resident Dracula expert.
‘Whitby Abbey, forever linked with Dracula, makes the perfect backdrop for our partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant.’
‘It’s not just Dracula who needs your blood this Halloween – it could be your Mum, son, best-friend, or any of us.’
‘We hope that at the same time as enjoying deliciously chilling Halloween fun, visitors across all our participating sites will be inspired to find out their blood type and consider becoming a donor so that the NHS can continue to supply lifesaving blood needed by seriously ill patients.’
‘A quick finger prick test could reveal your blood type’
Famed for its eerie Gothic ruins overlooking the Yorkshire coast, Whitby Abbey was part of Bram Stoker’s inspiration for the creation of the world’s most iconic vampire.
Dracula features one of the earliest fictional depictions of blood transfusion in literature. It’s acknowledged as being remarkably progressive for its time with the procedure being highly experimental in the 1890s when Stoker was writing.
Whitby Abbey is just one of a number of English Heritage sites across the country offering Halloween-themed events where visitors can pick up a self-testing kit.
Other sites participating in the campaign include: Dover Castle, Eltham Palace, Pendennis Castle, Audley End House and Gardens, Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Gardens. A full list is on the English Heritage website.
Whether you’re exploring haunted castles, ancient ruins or ghostly gardens, it’s the perfect time to take one small step towards making a life-saving difference. Visitors will be asked to use the self-testing kits at home.
The kits use a small drop of blood and a litmus-style test card to show a person’s likely blood type in around five minutes. Only lab-based testing can confirm someone’s blood type – and donors will have their blood type confirmed after their first donation.
‘Each donation can save up to three people’
‘This Halloween, Dracula is not the only one on the hunt for blood. Across the country, we’re teaming up with English Heritage to seek out those with vital, life-saving blood types like O negative and B negative which are both urgently needed right now,’ says Altaf Kazi, Assistant Director of Partnerships, at NHS Blood and Transplant.
‘A quick finger prick test could reveal your blood type and start your journey as a real lifesaver. Giving blood takes around an hour, and each donation can save up to three people. And as every vampire knows, every drop counts!’
There are currently more than 60,000 appointments available at donor centres across the UK over the next six weeks. For more information or to book an appointment, visit: www.blood.co.uk
Breaktime News has previously reported on the process of blood donation.
