William and Marcus

We’re very proud of Marcus and William, they were our first donors during a pilot scheme which ran at the Vets Now clinic at Gateshead, and are the founder members of Harry’s Heroes. 
They have both given many times in an emergency and have saved the lives of lots of doggy friends.  We’re sure these guys were always meant to be famous - when getting this picture taken they could only be described as canine tap dancers – so we’re delighted to give them their moment of fame!

These two have now retired from donating as they’re getting a little older, but they’ll always remain very special and a huge part of Pet Blood Bank UK.

Tom

Meet Tom, he’s a retired racing greyhound and during his time on the track he was very successful.  Tom is owned by a local vet in the Gateshead area, so she knows just how important his life saving donations are, and to date he has donated a unit of blood 5 times. 
Tom is 7 years old and is completely chilled; indeed this boy always lies down for his donation as he is so relaxed.

Like William and Marcus Tom has played an important part in helping us to set up Pet Blood Bank UK.

Lance

We’re sure you will have seen Lance before as he’s the cover boy for Pet Blood Bank UK!  Lance is 2½ years old and is a Greyhound crossed with a Deerhound.  He was rescued by his current owners in 2005 and now has a great home life.  His owners also have 2 other Greyhounds and all three are our preferential blood type and donate regularly.   

To date Lance has donated blood 3 times and one of those times his donation saved the life of Saffron a Daschund.  Saffron suffered a chronic (long standing) anaemia, due to the fact that her body had stopped producing her own red blood cells.   

Her vets were doing lots of tests to try and find out what exactly was causing the problem.  Just before Christmas 2006 her owner brought her to the Vets Now emergency clinic in Gateshead with a dangerously low red blood cell level.  This had left her very weak and her owner, who was a medical doctor, knew that she had very little time left.

As the emergency clinic was trialling the blood collection and storage, blood was on hand to enable a transfusion to take place.  Saffron was blood typed and cross matched (to check the donor blood was compatible with her system) and when these tests showed that she was a match for Lance’s blood the transfusion was given.

Saffron only weighed 5kg so only needed half a unit of the donors red blood cells, which raised her blood level from 9% to 44% (completely normal).  She did very well post the transfusion and her owner was delighted to spend Christmas with Saffron, that without the transfusion she would never have seen.
 
Lance’s blood then went on to help a Labrador survive surgery to remove a ruptured spleen and his plasma went to help Bruce our Labrador puppy who had parvo.

Allegra

Allegra is a this 5 year old Cane Corso (Italian Mastiff), she lives at home with her owners and 6 other Cane Corsos, and like Lance she’s not the only donor in her house, two of her owners other Cane Corsos also donate. 

Allegra has donated blood twice and finds it very easy.  Indeed like all other Cane Corsos who weigh between 40 and 70kg they can give a unit of blood no problem!