Blood donor who started at 17 gives 150th pint

A donor has given blood for the 150th time.

Dave Charles, 74, donated his first pint in 1967 when aged 17 and is not planning on stopping anytime soon.

"It doesn't hurt, it costs you nothing and you're doing some good," he said.

Mr Charles, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, joked that he used to give a pint of blood at the Town Hall and would then "walk across the road to the pub and put four back in".

The retired heating engineer donated his 150th pint at the Urban Hotel, Swingbridge Road.

"Once you've given about 100, the vein is very hard to get into. When it goes in, it makes me jump, but I'm not stopping," Mr Charles said.

"You meet a lot of lovely people there and the nurses – I know them personally.

"They're absolutely brilliant. I've known some of them 30 years."

He described donating as a "lovely experience" and said it always made him "feel a lot better".

People who want to give blood can find details on the NHS website.

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