TV soap story prompts 5,000 blood donations leaving girl's family 'gobsmacked'
An episode of Casualty that aired last year prompted 5,000 new blood donation registrations.
All I Want For Christmas, which was broadcasted over the festive period in December, focused on the staff at Holby ED dealing with a shortage of vital bags of donated blood.
The instalment had real-life stories interspersed throughout, with one of them focusing on a little girl called Beatrix.
The youngster, who is four, spent more than a year in Newcastle's Freeman Hospital waiting for a new heart. She appeared in the special Christmas episode to shine a spotlight on the importance of donating blood.
Along with thousands of new blood donations, the episode also resulted in 10,000 extra appointments being made to give blood.
Beatrix's father Terry said the scale of the impact was 'staggering' and reiterated how vital blood donations are, pointing out that his daughter's life had been saved 'multiple times over' by them.
Beatrix's family, who are from County Durham, filmed for the episode in September at their home and Durham Fire Station. Terry noted that young Beatrix was in her 'element' while filming and loved being cheeky with the crew.
The NHS noted 1,200 appointments were booked within the hour after the instalment was broadcasted, and also stated 5,000 donations are needed everyday to meet the needs of hospitals and patients.
When Terry learnt about the number of people who had signed up as a result of watching the episode, he was 'absolutely gobsmacked'.
'We owe a massive debt of gratitude to every single person that has given blood and continues to do so', Terry said.
Beatrix had her heart transplant in 2022. She needed multiple blood transfusions during and in the run up to the operation.
Star Barney Walsh, who plays nurse Cam in the show, reflected on the importance of blood donations in a chat with us back in December.
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He said: 'The importance of blood should not be underestimated, because it is the one thing that cannot be replaced and cannot be manufactured. It's either there or it's not.
'From the beginning of the episode, seeing Cam and the particular rigmarole that Cam has to do with the blood from the beginning – out of the fridge into the thing, the clock has to go on, it has to be downstairs by a certain time, has to be on the right shelf at the right time.
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'All of these things you'd expect, OK, but the fact that blood can so easily be either contaminated or the fact that blood can be so easily depleted in an ED or in a resus of one room of one hospital is quite scary and quite staggering.'
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