About the charity
The Edinburgh and South East of Scotland Blood Transfusion Service began its life in 1930 following the death of the wife of a friend of an Edinburgh dentist due to blood loss which he felt was avoidable.
At this time (the 1920’s) blood transfusion was new, the 4 blood groups had been discovered and some thought had been given to how it could be used but it was still at the frontiers of medicine. Donors were usually medical students or relatives who were aware of the dangers involved.
Jack Copland had the idea to establish a panel of voluntary donors whose blood group would be known in advance and who would be prepared to donate blood whenever called upon to do so. No payment would be given to these donors, rather an opportunity to “give something back” to society. He managed to attract funding from the Holyrood Conclave of the Crusaders, which was a voluntary welfare organisation, to set up a donor panel and he put out an appeal for some donors. They were to be preferably men aged between 20-30. 26 people responded to that initial request and the panel was small but that was just the start. The first call for a donor came after only 2 months. By the end of 1932 the recruitment position had improved and some volunteers has to be turned away but by 1936 there were 350 donors.
By that stage the service had become too big for Jack Copland to manage on his own. The pressure both personal and financial was proving too much. He wrote to the papers looking for support and following this an approach was made to the Department of Health by a member of the BMA to discuss the situation. The BMA position was this ought to be a Scotland wide service funded nationally. This did not happen as it provided a local service to Edinburgh but an emergency rescue package was put together by the Lord Provost, representatives from the medical establishment and Jack Copland’s service. Jack Copland also got support for a paid assistant, Helen White, and the Royal Infirmary took over the responsibility of transporting the donors leaving Jack Copland to continue recruiting more donors and fundraising. At this stage the number of donations had reached 619.
The blood transfusion service at this stage was very different to that we know now. Most transfusions were direct. There was no capacity to store blood and the donor was brought to the patient and the blood transfused straight into the patient. This could be very embarrassing for patients and donors however the positive aspect of this immediate transfusion was that donors knew where their blood had gone. They were also given a certificate with details of the patient they had helped, the reason for the transfusion and the effect of the transfusion.
During the 6 years when the service was run by Jack Copland and the Crusaders no appeal for blood was unanswered but with a small pool this put quite a pressure on donors some of whom ended up giving more donations that we would allow today. He took a great personal interest in the donors and tried to support them as best he could as appropriate.
In the days before the service finally became nationally funded one it relied on charitable support and fundraising and publicity were an important part of the service. This took the form of Flag Days, concerts, sales of work, whist drives, adverts at the cinemas in Edinburgh and any other ways that could be thought to be helpful.
In 1936 with the imminent threat of war, a government committee was established to look at how the existing services in Scotland could be transformed into a national one which could meet the needs of a national emergency. The outcome of this inquiry was the establishment of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service in 1940 under the chairmanship of Lord Rosebery. This established a national framework from 5 regional services in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness. At this time Edinburgh was the only centre to have an organised service and so it was used as a model for the others to follow. It also resulted in Jack Copland becoming the national organiser and Helen White his assistant becoming the donor organiser in Edinburgh with and a chemist called C.P. Sewart, becoming the Director of the Edinburgh service.
The service had at last become a national one but was not fully funded by the state until the second world war. Prior to that the government would only match fund the donations for the period of the war emergency.
The next development was the creation of blood banks with the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh creating a storage facility for 120 pints just in advance of the first air raid warning. Prior to this the preference had been for fresh blood rather than stored blood but within the first few weeks its worth had been proven as it was used to treat casualties from the destroyer Mohawk which was bombed by the Germans on the Firth of Forth. All but one of these casualties survived.
The next technical advance during war time was the use of plasma rather than whole blood. Plasma was easier to use on the battlefield as it did not have to be matched to the user’s blood group and also it lasted much longer than the whole blood. Again Edinburgh was at the forefront of this as it had a plasma drying plant, the only one in Scotland.
There was a very positive impact of the war on finding donors as donating blood was one way that people left at home could contribute to the war effort. Just before the war the Edinburgh service had 700 donors and by the end of 1942 the number of active donors had reached 10,000 and with preparation for the D Day landings this rose by another 10,000 names.
The catchment area for Edinburgh donors had also widened with local donation centres being set up outside Edinburgh and mobile teams going out from Edinburgh to hold sessions. The success of this development depended almost entirely on the energy and commitment of local organisers.
Once war was over the motivation for remaining a blood donor became more difficult whilst the demand for blood continued to rise and so the need for volunteer coordinators became more important. They had to write out to donors informing them of the date of the session, ensure they had somewhere to hold the session and support the mobile team throughout the session. By the 1980’s this work was centralised at the Royal Infirmary with letters able to be sent out from a central database. Now we know this is done electronically on people’s phones.
The downside of this is the loss of the link between the coordinator and the donor and also the feeling of donor anonymity. Think back to the start of it all when a donor lay beside the recipient and knew how the blood was used and to whom it went.
Blood transfusion has come a long way since then with Edinburgh playing a vital part. Today Scotland is one of the few countries in the world which is almost self sufficient in blood products other than plasma pheresis. It has a strong donor base and a strong clinical and research base.
Thanks given to David Fisher who wrote ‘The Gift of Life’ from which most of this information has been taken.