Suffolk crash survivor urging people to donate blood
David Rose was in a head-on crash which caused him to lose part of his leg in 1979
David Rose from Mellis started donating blood in April 1976, three years later he found himself needing donations, after surviving a serious motorbike crash.
David was first motivated to donate blood after seeing his father be a lifelong donor, starting in the RAF.
He was also inspired by his family to start riding a motorbike with his grandfather riding until his mid 80's.
David has always considered himself a "defensive" road rider but coming home from work one day in East London he encountered "a guy from France driving on the French side of the road in East Ham."
"I had a split second to avoid a head-on collision."
David says he tried to swerve into the curb but in doing so he exposed the right side of his body - his right leg was "destroyed."
He told us there were no mobile phones back then and so he was "lying in the road, effectively dying through blood loss."
But thankfully a police car pulled up with two officers inside, one of which was a member of St John's ambulance brigade.
The officer jumped out of the car, assessed the situation, and removed his belt to use it as a tourniquet, to stem the flow.
His colleague got out and used, their radio to call an ambulance.
From there David was taken to hospital and given a blood transfusion.
David was conscious through out the whole event but doesn't remember anything due to what the doctors described to him as "traumatic amnesia."
He told us he was in intensive care for a few days afterwards and lost almost a week before he "came back to the land of the living ."
"The only reason I'm still here is because people have donated units of blood."
David says he's only here today because units of blood were "pumped" into him to keep him alive while the while the surgeons "did their magic."
He expressed his gratitude to all of those involved and those who donated, saying "It's been a privilege to enjoy life" recognising the chances of surviving an accident like his are "small" but he counts himself "incredibly lucky to still be here" and says this mindset has kept him "in a good place."
However, in October he had a second operation but developed an infection, which led to his right leg being amputated above the knee.
David is still able to give blood as his operation took place before the 1st of January 1980.
This is the cut-off date for those who had received blood products through surgery or other blood-related matters as the NHS took precautionary measures to reduce the risk of people contracting a condition called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).
According to the NHS, CJD is likely to be caused by consuming meat from a cow that had bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or "mad cow" disease).
"Donating Blood is the True Gift of Life"
After recovering David chose to continue donating blood. He described it like a "balance sheet"
"I was in credit to start with up to the date of the accident, then I was well into the debit side of the account and I wanted to get back into credit.... it meant something to me."
A part of his desire to continue donating is also due to the amount of medicine that can be made from blood donations and simply how vital it is in modern medicine.
He said, "There's almost nothing else that we can do as individual citizens to save people's lives directly, which is what being a blood donor represents.
He also told us he feels "exceptionally privileged" that he has been healthy enough to continue donating.
As of last year he has donated blood more than one hundred times and saved 200-300 lives as a direct result.
David is encouraging more people to go out and donate.