a CARING teenager had an unusual way of marking her birthday yesterday.

Katie Reeves, from Upper Heyford, celebrated her 17th birthday by giving blood for the first time.

Katie, a student at the Marlborough School in Woodstock, marked her special day by spending time at the blood donation unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

She said: “I was not nervous, I was quite excited.

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“I wanted to start as soon as possible to show that birthdays are not just to get presents.

“Rather than receiving, it’s about giving.”

Katie said she was inspired to donate after seeing her mother Lucy Reeves, 40, give blood. The teenager hopes to encourage more young people to join the cause after discovering just four per cent of healthy able people donate.

She said: “I think more people should be trying to do it and especially young people because they can give more blood over time and they have probably got better bodies as well.”


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