The Blood Race Operation Ouch!

-Are you ready for our Ouch! Snips?

-Snip-snip!

-Ouch!

-Exactly!

Is it enough blood to fill approximately...

That's around 23,000 litres of blood.

SIREN WAILS

Blood - if you're sick and you need it, nothing else will do.

The tricky bit is there's only one way of getting hold of blood -

taking it out of people. People like me.

Around 4,000 litres of blood are used

in hospitals all over England every day.

It's vital for life-saving treatments

and that's why donations are so important.

I'm just about to insert a needle into your arm, Xand.

Yep, so that's in. And, actually, it really didn't hurt at all.

You feel a bit of a scratch and it's not a very nice idea,

but Linda's a real expert, so it's completely fine.

You're doing really well there. It's all up and going.

There it is, filling up.

Your body is actually a blood factory.

It's constantly making new blood.

But it makes it in a place you might not expect -

in the middle of your bones.

Our bodies can produce two million red blood cells every second.

That's incredible!

I'm donating about half a litre of blood,

the equivalent of almost two cans of fizzy drink.

That's around 13% of the blood circulating around my body.

That's me done, and it only took five minutes.

That's going to come out now, OK? Well done.

Just keep pressure on there for us. OK, that's lovely.

-Thank you very much.

-It's been a pleasure.

This is a bag of my blood, and sometime in the next 35 days,

it's going to be put inside someone else, possibly saving their life.

But it can't go straight into them.

First, it's got to go to the blood factory.

This is the largest blood factory in the world, and we're going in.

I've never seen anything like this.

Behind me are 800 bags of live human blood. Whaa!

3,000 bags of blood arrive in this factory every day.

But before it's sent to the hospitals, the donated blood

is separated into red blood cells, plasma and platelets.

Once it's separated out, the blood is tested

to make sure it's not carrying any infections or diseases,

and also sorted into the different blood types.

These are the final products of this massive blood factory -

thousands of bags of living human blood, including mine,

all going out to save lives.

And when this blood is needed urgently in an emergency,

hospitals need a fast and reliable delivery service.

This is Peter Woodsford.

He's a safety officer by day

and is a volunteer in a motorbike blood-delivery service by night.

And this evening, he's letting me and you come along for the ride.

This does involve some waiting around,

but when a call comes in, it's time to swing into action.

-Peter Woodsford.

-So we're heading off.

I've got my camera with me and you're coming, too.

Blood needs to go from the blood bank at King's Hospital in London

to Kent and Canterbury Hospital 60 miles away,

where it's needed as quickly as possible.

So the volunteer drivers have set up a relay system,

with us doing the last leg.

We're now driving to the meeting point,

where we'll pick up the blood. So far, so good.

I can see why Peter chose this, it's really good.

It's very important, life-saving work, but it is good fun.

Here we go, and the blood has arrived.

Part of this delivery is needed urgently

for a patient who has become anaemic.

They need the blood to boost their red blood cells

so they can take more oxygen around their body.

So stage two of the journey begins.

We have to get to the hospital

to help the patient as soon as possible.

All through the night, up and down the country,

other volunteer bikers like Pete are doing the same thing

and helping people in desperate need.

The finish line is in sight.

Time to drop this blood off at the hospital.

It's been a hectic night, but we got the blood here on time.

What a privilege it's been to take part in what is literally

the lifeblood of the health care system.

What's amazing about this is I've given people blood as a doctor

and I'd absolutely no idea of the journey it has to go on.

The amount of people like Pete who give up their time and energy

to do this thing, which is so important in saving lives.

It's a really amazing job.

Thanks, Pete.

-See you next time!

-Bye!

-Bye!

-Bye!

-Bye!

-Bye!

By-y-y-y-y-ye!

THEY MOUTH "BYE"