Hansard

I am pleased to be able to contribute to this important debate, and I thank my colleague Fulton MacGregor for bringing it to the chamber.

Giving blood means giving the ultimate gift. It does not cost the donor anything—just a short time out of their day—to give someone the chance of life, or a better life.

The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service is a credit to our nation. It has been providing safe high-quality blood, tissues and cell products since the 1930s. That is quite a pedigree. If we are ever in need of blood—whether through illness or an accident, whether for ourselves or for our children—we assume that it will always be there, and thanks to thousands of donors, it is. However, during the surreal time that we are living through, with Covid dominating our lives and the NHS, it is more important than ever that there are enough supplies.

Today’s debate is important, because it might reach out to people who have always meant to donate blood—I include myself in that category. Sadly, as Fulton MacGregor articulated in his motion, there is concern that

“Scotland has fewer registered blood donors than at any other point this century”.

Over the past year, the number of people donating blood supplies has dropped by 13,000, and estimates suggest that the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service needs another 3,300 donors per week to ensure that blood supplies remain at safe levels.

In 2016, I held a members’ business debate in the chamber, and I had a resolution passed at our party’s conference on the subject that Paul O’Kane has just excellently articulated: men who have sex with men being treated equally in regard to blood donations. At that time, a man who had had sex with another man in the previous 12 months could not give blood, albeit that they were in a monogamous relationship. Clearly, those rules were archaic and made no reference to someone’s personal risk of, for example, being a carrier of HIV, and a promiscuous straight person would be able to donate blood freely. Shockingly, if a same sex couple’s child ever needed a blood transfusion, and they were a match, they would not be allowed to save their own child’s life.

Thankfully, that inequality has now changed. In June last year, on world blood donor day, new legislation came into effect across Scotland, England and Wales, which means that donors’ eligibility is assessed on a person-by-person basis, rather than by the application of across-the-board restrictions. Gay men, who, for years, had suffered such discrimination, could safely and happily give much needed blood.

As many across the chamber have said, a person just never knows when they will need a blood donation. Many new mums owe their life, or their baby’s life—as we heard from Fulton MacGregor—to someone taking the short time to give a pint of blood. What could be more rewarding than being responsible for enabling that?

As the saying goes, not all heroes wear capes. They simply decide to donate a pint of blood and become a lifesaver, and a special thank you must go to the hard-working staff who enable that to happen.

I say to people: please, if you have one new year’s resolution to make that will really make a difference, please consider giving blood. It is painless, quick and easy, I am told. Visit the SNBTS website to find out how you can donate and where your nearest centre is, and make that positive step—a step that is needed today, as we battle our way through this pandemic, more than ever.