A woman who relies on fornightly blood transfusions has urged people to come forward and give blood, as national supplies reach “critically low” levels.
Chloë Adlerstein, 32, from Greenwich, has an inherited blood disorder called Thalassaemia and relies on blood transfusions every two weeks.
Thalassaemia affects the body's ability to produce normal haemoglobin, resulting in too little oxygen in the bloodstream, causing extreme tiredness and shortness of breath.
When asked about the importance of blood donors, Chloë told The Standard: “Without blood I wouldn’t be able to survive. I am at the mercy of people who go and give blood.”
She added: “It’s a really selfless act for people to take time out of their busy lives to go and donate blood, especially when they don't even get to see who it goes to or how it helps.
“I know it's a bit of a faff and you need to sign up, but it not only saves lives in emergencies, but it gives people like me the opportunity to live a full life as well.
“It really means the world to me and to all the other strangers I see regularly that also get transfusions.”
In 2024, blood shortages triggered an 'amber alert' following a major cyberattack on London hospitals. Officials are now working to prevent the situation from escalating to a 'red alert'.
The cyberattack severely disrupted hospitals' ability to carry out vital blood cross-matching procedures until the autumn, increasing reliance on limited stocks of O-negative blood. This placed significant strain on both blood supply and collection efforts.
As a result, the NHS entered the winter period—and later, Easter and the bank holidays—in a far more vulnerable position than usual.
Despite ongoing efforts, the NHS has struggled to rebuild blood reserves and restore system resilience, which has made it difficult to get out of the amber alert status.
Chloë, who has an A+ blood type, hasn’t been directly affected by the shortages so far, but she remains concerned that it could eventually impact how regularly she receives her transfusions.
“I have quite a busy life, both work and social wise, so it’s quite debilitating when I’m at the end of my transfusion cycle because a lot of things I can normally get done at a good pace and to a good standard, I find really difficult,” she said.
“I have very low energy, I feel fatigued, I feel like I'm not firing on all cylinders, so day-to-day tasks feel a lot more difficult and my mental wellbeing is affected as well.
“Obviously once I've had my transfusion, I feel back to my positive, happy self again, but going through this cycle every kind of two to three weeks is quite a lot to deal with sometimes, but I try and like look on the bright side of it.”
Chloë has lived with Thalassaemia her entire life, but it wasn’t until a routine blood test aged 17, that it was finally identified and doctors realised she had been functioning on less than half the oxygen levels of her peers.
“During my childhood, my family just thought that I was lazy and not able to keep up with everyone else, but when I was diagnosed they were like ‘I can’t believe you’ve had this condition for so long’,” she said.
“I’m kind of grateful, in a way, that I wasn’t diagnosed until I was a bit older because my body has had to learn to cope with having really low haemoglobin.
“When I was diagnosed, doctors were like ‘how on earth are you able to walk around with such low haemoglobin?”
Up until two years ago, Chloë was having transfusions as and when she needed them, but a collective decision was made for her to have them more regularly instead.
“Waiting until I was at death’s door to be transfused was really playing havoc with my life,” Chloë said. “I’d call, wait a few days and then have to go to hospital which impacted me so much.”
Chloë recently ran the London Marathon to raise money for the UK Thalassaemia Society, in honour of her younger self—who once dreaded PE lessons and couldn’t finish cross-country races because of her condition.
Commenting on the challenge, she said: “It was incredible and raised a lot of money as well as quite a lot of awareness around the topic. I inspired a few people to donate blood, too, which was obviously a big part of what I was trying to achieve.”
Hospitals across England need over 5,000 blood donations every day to ensure they have the blood they need to treat patients.
However, blood has a shelf life of 35 days so its vital stocks are constantly replenished.
Currently, two-thirds of the blood collected across England is used to treat those with ongoing conditions, such as blood disorders and cancer.
But only 2 per cent of the population, just under 800,000 people, currently support the entire blood supply in England.
Dr Jo Farrar has described the past year’s blood supply levels as “challenging” and has been at the forefront of urging people to come forward and donate.
"There are many thousands of people who donate regularly and help us keep patients alive,” she said.
“Thank you. You are amazing. You keep the NHS going and save and transform thousands of lives a year.
"Our stocks over the past 12 months have been challenging. If we had a million regular donors, this would help keep our stocks healthy – you'd truly be one in a million.
"Please book an appointment today, experience how good it feels to save lives, and come and do it again in a few months."
To donate blood, visit blood.co.uk/the-donation-process.
