When his uncle was in hospital and required multiple blood transfusions, Stephen King became a blood donor.

At donation centres, he saw the lack of younger donors and after discovering there had been a 50 per cent drop due to the Covid pandemic. He decided to do something about it.

Stephen and his friend Alex Last from Woking, came up with WeDonate. A rewards platform that gives verified blood and plasma donors exclusive discounts on a variety of products and services.

While it is illegal to pay donors in the UK, discount schemes are not. However, there are ethical concerns as some countries do remunerate donors. One concern is that paid donors are usually poorer, and are putting themselves at risk of exploitation and commercialisation.

But WeDonate has been so successful, that the 30-year-old entrepreneurs won £25,000 in the AXA startup competition.

“It was really surreal,” Stephen said.

“Every one blood donation can save or improve up to three lives. We thought if we can show that blood donation is important and spread the word in a different way and by saying thank you to those people.

“It could make a real difference.” 

The duo also receive mentorship and business insurance for a year. The hope is to spread the word and bring attention to how blood donation saves lives.

Through the platform, donors can access discounts from big brands such as Nike and Calvin Klein and enter giveaways. WeDonate only operates in the UK, but Stephen and Alex hope to expand to other countries. 

According to the World Health Organisation, global blood donation rates are:

Stephen added: “You can only store blood for up to 30 days and you can donate up until the age of 65.

“So every year the NHS loses a big portion of their regular donors because the younger generation aren't filling that deficit.

“If it continues to go that way, it could create quite a scary situation for future blood supply.”

There were only 224,658 new blood donor registrations in the UK between April 2023 to the end of March 2024. NHS statistics reveal that it is a significant decline compared to the years between 2020 to 2021, when there were 426,925.

Calls for more 17 to 35-year-olds were made by the NHS in January. Marking the first time in five years where there are more donors over the age of 45 than under.

Although WeDonate has been incredibly successful in a short period of time. Stephen and Alex don’t want to lose sight of what drives them.

“Having family members in need of blood transfusions was a stressful time,” Stephen said.

“It was at this point we thought, ‘Wait a minute, I don’t even donate? Why haven’t I done this?’ and it grew from there. 

“We really want to make a difference, and we really want to save lives.”