BINFIELD business man David Horton is a man in a million.
He first gave blood as a student aged 19 and this year the 75-year-old received a certificate thanking him for his 300th donation.
According to the NHS Blood and Transplant Service, that puts David into a very rare category of lifelong donors known as blood millionaires.
Despite this amazing achievement, he plans to continue as long as the NHS allows him even though he has reached the official cut off age for donors.
“I feel wonderful to have achieved this milestone and greatly honoured to receive such recognition from the Blood and Transplant Service,” explained David.
“I was told just over 200 people in the UK have reached the 250 mark so to go even further is something special. I would like to continue but it is up to the NHS if they allow it.”
David says he “just fell into giving blood” in 1966 while a PE student at university. After a few years break, he started organising charity events with the late actor and disability campaigner, Brian Rix, and began making more regular donations. These included blood, platelets and plasma up to six times a year.
“When people ask what motivates me, I reply it’s the free tea and biscuits,” he jokes.
“I just believe it is something important that needs to be done and which almost anyone can do. Around 25% of the UK population will require a blood transfusion in their lifetime but only 4% of eligible adults will give blood. The NHS says 750,000 people donate annually but it needs 100,000 new people to do so each year.
“Giving blood doesn’t take long and is easily done. I have been told that I have helped so many people of all ages over the years, people I will never know but it feels good to realise they have benefited from what is really a very simple thing to do.”
During the covid pandemic, David was asked to donate as often as twice a month at the JRH Oxford Hospital. He earned his 250th donation credit in 2018, but had to wait until July last year to receive an NHS medal.
In February this year, he made his 300th blood donation in Reading.
