Mum tells of trauma to help Give Blood campaign (From Darlington and Stockton Times)

Darlington mum tells of trauma to help Give Blood campaign

5:03pm Monday 4th March 2013 in News By Chris Webber, Reporter (Stockton/Hartlepool)

A MOTHER has told how a large transfusion of blood during childbirth saved her life as part of a new Give Blood campaign.

Wendy Robbins, 42, of Darlington, was only 19 and pregnant with her second child when she awoke to find she was bleeding.

At hospital she lost the baby and there was a serious effort to try and save her life and then her womb.

Mrs Robbins explained her blood had stopped clotting. Thankfully her blood started to clot again after the trauma and doctors still have not got the bottom of why it occurred.

The mother-of-three was speaking at the launch of a new Give Blood campaign at Teesside University in Middlesbrough. 

Mrs Robbins, who lives near Glebe Road, explained she was 20 weeks pregnant at the time. She said: “My family were prepared for the worst. I had counselling afterwards and for years we would mark the day, December 7, when it happened.

“I wanted to give blood myself but they said they couldn’t accept my blood because the transfusion was in the time of Mad Cow Disease. So I asked what could I do to help the cause.”

Also at the NHS Blood and Transplant launch was student David Biggs, 19, who lives in Middlesbrough and gives blood. He explained a good friend became ill with leukaemia ten years ago but has thankfully made a full recovery.

Campaigners are targeting young people to give blood and there is an attempt to recruit 100,000 new blood donors in 100 days. Log on to www.blood.co.uk