HEALTH bosses are looking for about 600 volunteers from the Brentwood area to sign up for a two-year study to help boost depleting blood stocks.
During the course of the Interval Study, which the NHS describes as "ground-breaking," scientists will monitor how taking blood from people at different time intervals affects their health.
Ahead of the research, volunteers will randomly be allocated to a time group and be expected to donate blood at the Crescent Road centre on time.
Men will be divided into appointments 8,10 and 12 weeks apart and women into 12, 14 and 16-week slots.
Each participant will be asked to provide an additional blood sample at the start and end of the two-year project and complete questionnaires every six months.
Donors who have already signed up to the scheme include Judi Duffy, 44, from St Kildas Road, in Brentwood, who has been giving blood since she was 18.
She has been placed on a 12-week timetable and expects to contribute her first sample for the scheme in March.
She said: "I don't enjoy giving blood, but I want it to be available for my friends or family, so I can't really expect it to be there unless I go out and give it.
"If this research is going to help or raise awareness, then that's good with me."
Sawyers Hall Lane resident Eric Lingard, 70, an 85-time donor has also signed up to the research. He explained why he hopes many other people will join him.
He said: "Basically we are desperately short of blood. There is nowhere near enough blood donors.
"I even told them I could give every eight weeks if they wanted me to, but they have put me on 12 weeks, which I think is because of my age.
"It's not ageism, it's just that the older you get, the longer it takes for your body to replace the blood."
Wendy Fleming, 73, from The Meadows, in Ingrave, added: "They are so short of blood, if we can give more effectively, because that's what they are really testing, to see what effect that can have, then that's great."
The research, being run by the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford in partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), will analyse a total of 50,000 participants nationwide to see if the length of time between blood donations can be tailored to suit people's age, weight, diet and inherited factors.
Dr Lorna Williamson, NHSBT's medical and research director, said: "We are constantly striving to make the process of giving blood as easy as possible whilst keeping our valuable donors as safe as possible. Hopefully this new study will be another step forward in achieving this by offering a modern, efficient service to donors based on strong clinical and scientific evidence."
Findings from the Interval Study are expected to emerge in 2015/6.
Donors must be aged 18 or over, have access to the internet and e-mail and be able to give blood at the Brentwood Donor Centre.
Visit www.blood.co.uk or www.intervalstudy.org.uk or call the centre on 0300 123 2323 to volunteer.
Applications close at the end of March.
