I wish to give tribute to my friend and colleague Mr Peter Woollcott of Walthamstow. He was a school governor at Chapel End Primary Schools for 32 years and completed last year a personal life-long milestone, as a whole red blood donor, when he gave his 100th unit donation, at one of the regular Walthamstow Assembly Hall sessions.

Our local community has many regular and long-term blood, platelet and plasma donors, who all deserve personal recognition, as each time someone takes merely one hour of their life to donate, it represents an act of selfless help in saving a life of an unknown mother with a transfusion birth, stabbing victim or road accident casualty or any unknown thankful person requiring new blood product, in any unforseen life crisis situation.

However, due to the limited shelf life of blood stocks and nowadays more blood dependant medical and surgical operations, there is a constant need to recruit new blood donors of both common and rare blood groups and in particular ethnic compatible blood groups to sickle cell anaemia persons.

My personal whole of life red blood donation commitment started in 1972, as a result of the loss of two young family male relatives, one captain of his hospital football team, who at the peak of health, were both taken by leukaemia.T his served to sped my own active life saving commitment to donate 158 units, to date, and pledge to continue as long as is possible in the future.

I would encourage healthy 18 year olds to witness the example of others and pick up the blood donation baton and run with it.

Blood donation is a simple and painless process and only takes one hour every 12/14 weeks and can offer invisible help to help save another human life to someone whom always remains grateful to them.

Patrick C Smith, Higham Hill, Liberal Democrat Focus