Clara adds voice to clamour for more life-saving plasma donations

The NHS has put out an appeal for more plasma donations to coincide with tomorrow’s World Rare Diseases Day. 

And one of the beneficiaries of the life-saving donations – 22-year-old Clara Cameron from west London – is publicising her experiences to emphasise just how important the public’s help can be. 

The health service says it needs at least 2,400 Londoners to come forward to donate.  

Plasma is made into a medicine called immunoglobulin, which is used to treat immune system disorders, and about 3,900 people from London receive it each year. 

Some 50 rare diseases can be combated this way.  

Plasma is part of your blood. It’s the liquid which carries everything around the body. When donated, it is a yellow colour. Plasma is rich in antibodies, and can strengthen your immune system. 

Clara Cameron, an executive assistant from Hammersmith, said immunoglobulin saved her life as a child – and is again helping her as an adult now, after her illness returned. 

As a child, Clara was having up to 54 epileptic seizures a day. When she was 12 and her illness was at its worst, she was hospitalised for five months. 

Her seizures lasted two to three minutes, and caused choking and full body spasms – unusually while remaining conscious. A paralysis called ‘Tod’s Paresis’ also set in – affecting different parts of her body at different times. 

Many standard anti-epileptic medications were tried with no effect. A scan found her whole brain was swollen. 

Doctors decided to try immunoglobulin, a specialist blood product made from donated plasma. Doctors still don’t know exactly how it works for some patients. 

Clara said: “There was a dramatic drop in the seizures. They went from up to 54 a day to none, over about two weeks. 

“I didn’t really believe it was actually possible that it was working. I had been in hospital for five months by that point. I was a 12-year-old and I just wanted the illness to end.” 

Clara had immunoglobulin once a month, then less frequently as the months and years went on. She did not have seizures through the rest of her childhood, and went on to lead a normal life until seizures returned last September. But a resumption of treatment has again worked. 

“I am so grateful to people who donated plasma,” she said. “For me, immunoglobulin was and is a miracle treatment. It turned my life around. I didn’t think I would make it to 13 let alone 22.” 

During donation, a machine gradually separates out up to 700mls of plasma from blood. Donation takes about 35 minutes and the whole visit takes around one hour 15 minutes. 

Pamela Antoinette, Plasma Operations Manager for Twickenham Donor Centre, said: “Plasma saves the lives of people who have a weak immune systems or people with immune systems that are attacking their own body. 

“However we need more donors in London at our Twickenham centre, to build up long term supplies of this lifesaving medicine – please register to donate.” 

For details, please visit www.blood.co.uk/plasma or search ‘donate plasma’. 

Pictured top: Clara receiving treatment as a child (Picture: NHS Blood and Transplant)