Dorset blood donor donates 100th pint dressed as Dracula’s bride

An 80-year-old woman has donated her 100th pint of blood on Halloween while dressed as Dracula’s bride.

Carol Verney, from Blandford in Dorset, said she invited passersby to donate as she made her way to the blood donor centre in fancy dress.

With her for support was her husband Malcolm, dressed appropriately as Dracula.

She said she has no plans to stop giving blood after this because of how much she enjoys the feeling of helping other people.

BBC Radio Solent’s Steve Harris visited her on Friday at the NHS blood donor centre in a Boots shop in Poole where she made her milestone donation.

“I just can’t believe I’ve got here,” she said. “It’s been such a fantastic journey and everyone’s been so helpful, including my husband.”

“Everybody was smiling as I walked down [to the donor centre] and I said, ‘I’m giving my hundredth pint of blood, why don’t you come and join me?”

She said that when she began giving blood, she didn’t expect to have ended up giving 100 pints.

“I keep giving, and they keep taking, and we got to 100 – it’s only taken 61 years, but hey,” she said.

But now that she has reached that number, she said she has no plans to stop – but that she doubts she’ll get to 200 pints.

“I might get to 102, that’s about it,” she joked.

She also encouraged others to try giving blood, and said she didn’t find the process uncomfortable.

“We all need to give blood,” she said. “You’re helping somebody, you’re giving life to somebody, they might need it – you might need it yourself,” she said.