Meet one of England's oldest blood donors: aged 85 and 192 donations since 1955

Derek Rogerson, 85, a retired engineer of Leyland motors wants to share his long-running story as a blood donor with the hopes of encouraging more people to donate to the NHS.

As he made his 192nd donation in Deepdale, Preston this week, Derek says the pain is what most people fear. He said: “The most painful part of donating blood is peeling the plaster off at the end. Especially if you have hairy arms like me!

"It really does not hurt at all, you don’t feel a thing and it takes no longer than an hour to donate.”

Derek from Bamber Bridge, has been donating since he was 18 years old. He recalls calling the nurses from the blood service, who used to come to recruit donors, ‘Lady Vampires’.

However, now he has a rather different opinion of the blood service. Derek said: “The nurses are always brilliant. They’re always asking for your safety and you’re made to feel really comfortable. The nurse I had yesterday had been on the job for 37 years!"

In total Derek has donated roughly 192 pints of blood, and he doens’t plan to stop anytime soon. The 85-year-old wants to get to 200 donations, after he has been donating three to four times a year since he was 18.

He said: “As long as my health keeps up, my blood quality is still acceptable I plan to keep going with donating. You never know when you’re going to need blood yourself. It’s so important people donate, it’s crucial as they’re struggling for donations right now.

"Stocks of certain blood types are at their lowest ever and many operations have had to be postponed because of this worrying situation.”

One pint of blood can help three people according to Derek, he wants more people young and old to be encouraged to donate too.

You can register to become a blood donor, like Derek, through the following website: https://my.blood.co.uk/preregister.