People urged to donate more 'liquid gold' plasma

A man who was paralysed by a rare autoimmune disorder is encouraging more people to donate plasma after receiving life-saving treatment.

Tony Newitt, 71, from Alcester in Warwickshire, was diagnosed last year with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare condition that is thought to be caused by an over-reaction of the immune system.

He was taken to University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire, where he received two treatments derived from donated plasma, which he described as "liquid gold".

Newitt said he was told he was unlikely to walk again, but he defied the odds and walked out of hospital in October and said the treatments were the "only reason" he has been able to begin to rebuild his life.

His diagnosis with Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) came not long after he had completed treatment for bowel and liver cancer.

In March 2025, weeks after his last chemotherapy session, he collapsed at home putting the bins out.

His daughter, Lauren Marshall, said: "It was just like somebody had flipped the switch and he just had lost all use of his body."

Doctors were eventually able to confirm it was GBS, which damages nerves that carry messages from the central nervous system around the body.

The condition affects about 1,300 people a year in the UK, with symptoms including numbness, pins and needles and muscle weakness.

Newitt said his whole body was affected before having five infusions and five plasma exchanges over the course of 10 days.

They stabilised his symptoms and he was able to start physiotherapy.

Newitt said: "Due to my age and the spread of the GBS, my prognosis for recovery was not great.

"I was told I may never walk again. I categorically disagreed and told the doctors that I would walk again, and that when I did, I would do it in a tutu - and so I did."

He was able to continue exercising at home, and in April went on his first family holiday for three years.

Marshall, who was a blood donor for two decades, has now switched to donating plasma.

She said: "My dad categorically said that the plasma that he received was the only reason he was able to leave hospital and begin to rebuild his life.

"He says it was the 'liquid gold' that gave him his life back."

Newitt now wants more people to donate plasma and said: "Without donors, many people's recoveries would not be possible."

NHS Blood and Transplant said more than 3,200 patients had had immunoglobulin medicines made from UK-donated plasma since March.

The UK had banned the use of UK plasma in 1998 and that was only lifted five years ago.

It now meets 23% of NHS immunoglobulin demand and hopes to increase that to 35% by 2030.

Plasma can be donated at donor centres in Birmingham, Reading and Twickenham.

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