A mother from Reading issues plea for blood plasma donations as supplies run low

WATCH: The full video report by ITV Meridian's Natalie Verney.

Emma Stone, from Lower Earley in Reading, first knew something was wrong when she picked up a kettle and her wrist dropped.

Within six months she needed a wheelchair for long journeys, could only crawl up the stairs and could no longer pick up her two young children. Her nerves became numb - she stopped being able to feel hot water.

Emma, a beautician, said: "I basically couldn't do anything. There was no way I could cut up my own food, dress myself or wash my own hair. On better days, I could just about sit in a chair out with friends."

Doctors diagnosed the 37-year-old with the rare autoimmune disease - chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP).

Her immune system was attacking the nerves that send signals to her muscles.

CIPD is progressive. If it's not caught early, people can become paralysed.

Emma was diagnosed in January 2022 and had intensive treatment with immunoglobulin soon afterwards.

Emma said: "The effect was like a miracle. Within about four weeks it had made a huge difference and I could move almost normally again. It was amazing."

To maintain her health, every three weeks, Emma goes into Royal Berkshire Hospital to have three infusions of immunoglobulin over three days.

"Immunoglobulin has just changed my life completely. It's enabled me to work again, to be a mum again. It allows me to have my life back. I'd got quite depressed when I couldn't do normal stuff with my kids, like pushing them on a swing, picking them up when they fell, carrying them to bed."

Immunoglobulin is a medicine made from blood plasma donations. It can treat many rare diseases, but stocks are low.

Plasma donation to the NHS has only just restarted after more than 20 years. It was banned as one of the precautions put in place against Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which was linked to mad cow disease.

Because of the ban, the UK has relied solely on imported immunoglobulin.

Now plasma donations are again being taken in England, and the stored plasma will be made into medicine when a full UK supply and manufacturing chain is in place.

The Reading Plasma Donation Centre is one of only three in England, but they're only filling 30% of their appointments.

Paula Usher, the Plasma Operations Manager, said: "17,000 people in the UK rely on the medicine made from plasma so people are walking around, they don't know they've got this life-saving liquid god medicine within them. It's safe, it's painless, it'll take about an hour of their day and they'll be well-looked after."

Emma wants to encourage more people to donate: "I'd just say to all the wonderful people donating, thank you, you are giving my kids a mum back, and saving my family."

UPDATE from NHS Blood and Transplant: "Thanks to the ITV coverage of plasma donation last night, we had 59 new plasma donor registrations for Reading, the highest day of 2023 so far, about four times as many as normal.

Theoretically, those extra donors could provide about 900 litres of plasma next year – enough to save upwards of about 20 lives."