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Supply and demand – it’s the crucial equation that the NHS Blood and Transplant Service (NHSBT) must balance as hospitals reopen after
pandemic lockdowns and the need for transfusions grows again.
During the pandemic, hospitals in England were kept supplied with blood by the smallest pool of donors in the 21st century - almost 40,000 fewer annual donors than before Covid-19. Blood donor numbers have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels and now the NHSBT is on its biggest blood drive ever, seeking to attract 100,000
new donors.

25-year-old Sasha Cooke was an actor when film and theatre production stopped in the first lockdown. Without work, her career took an unexpected turn and she signed up to train as an NHS blood donor carer. Now Sasha works full time collecting donor blood at clinics across London. Witnessing the daily selflessness of others has led Sasha to make a big decision: she has volunteered to donate one of her kidneys to a complete stranger. We follow Sasha as she undergoes this process up to the moment her kidney is given to its recipient.

Sasha is part of the cross-England NHSBT that includes specialist technicians, transport drivers and scientists working at one of Europe’s
largest blood processing centre at Filton, near Bristol. Working 24/7, the Filton team distributes up to a million blood donations a year across the
country.

Among some patients, demand for blood is particularly high. Sickle cell disorder has become the UK’s fastest-growing genetic disorder,
disproportionately affecting Black African and Black Caribbean communities. 19-year-old Abdul Samad Abdullah is a sickle cell patient who needs monthly red blood cell exchanges. An aspiring architectural designer from Milton Keynes, Abdul depends on the blood of strangers. He is one of the 15,000 people affected by sickle cell disorder in the UK.

We go behind the scenes of blood and organ donation in England, documenting the personal motivations and the science allowing donors to give the gift of life to complete strangers.