County Durham heart transplant girl’s Casualty role inspires blood donations

A four-year-old girl’s appearance on BBC drama Casualty helped prompt 5,000 new blood donor registrations, the NHS has said.

Beatrix, from Burnopfield, County Durham, who spent more than a year in Newcastle’s Freeman Hospital waiting for a new heart, appeared in the Christmas special to highlight the importance of donation.

Along with thousands of new donations, the episode also saw 10,000 extra appointments made to donate blood.

Dad Terry said the scale of the impact was “absolutely staggering” and that Beatrix’s life had been saved “multiple times over” by blood donors.

Beatrix’s family filmed the episode for the TV medical drama in September at their home and at Durham Fire Station.

Terry said his daughter was “in her element” while filming, and when the crew were “asking her to do a thumbs up, she was being cheeky and purposely doing a thumbs down”.

The NHS said the episode, which featured a number of people who had been affected by blood donation, prompted a “fantastic response” and that 1,200 appointments were booked in the hour immediately after the episode aired.

Beatrix had her heart transplant in 2022 and needed multiple blood transfusions both during and in the run up to the operation.

When Terry heard about the number of people who had signed up, he said he was “blown away and absolutely gobsmacked”.

“We owe a massive debt of gratitude to every single person that has given blood and continues to do so,” he said.

The NHS said it needed “5,000 donations every day to meet the needs of hospitals and patients”.

The episode, All I Want for Christmas, is available on iPlayer and was first shown on BBC One on 21 December.