A SWINDON teenager who almost lost his life after contracting a rare disease is supporting a new campaign to urge people to give blood.

Sam Lawson, 18, from Highworth, is getting behind NHS Blood and Transplant’s Missing Type campaign.

It aims to sign up new blood donors to ensure there is sufficient blood and of the right types available for donation in the future.

In 2014, Sam nearly died from organ failure after contracting Weil’s disease from swimming in the Thames.

He fell ill a few days later on holiday in Tunisia in August, with diarrhoea, vomiting, a high temperature and leg cramps, and was later rushed to ICU with kidney failure.

“He started getting breathless and feeling drowsy and he coughed up blood that morning,” said his mother Lisa, 44.

“I am a nurse and I could see he was getting worse quite seriously.”

Sam suffered a severe pulmonary haemorrhage – his lungs began to full with blood – and he was placed on a ventilator to help him breathe.

He received more than 20 units of blood and plasma and was placed on dialysis to treat his kidneys.

He was kept in hospital in Tunisia for two weeks before being repatriated and spent two more weeks in intensive care at Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital.

Sam, who played rugby for Supermarine, was 14 stone before he was admitted to hospital, but lost five stone during his treatment, which saw him needing a further three or four units of blood.

Lisa said: “Sam has now started college and is starting to get back to normal. He is generally doing okay but can get breathless sometimes.

“As a family we are very grateful to blood donors for their selfless generosity. Blood donors are unsung heroes.

“I urge people to register as new blood donors at blood.co.uk.”

Last year, 15,986 people in Wiltshire gave blood at least once, including 4,782 in Swindon.

Throughout the Missing Type campaign As, Bs and Os – the letters of the main blood groups – will be shown in promotional pictures 'missing' from websites, Twitter names and signs in everyday and iconic locations around the globe including America, Australia, Japan and Ireland.

Mike Stredder, the director of blood donation at NHS Blood And Transplant, which collects, tests and processes blood for hospitals across England, said: “Blood donation is an amazing gift and transfusions save lives in Swindon every day.

“Whether it is patients receiving treatment for cancer, blood disorders, after accidents or during surgery, or mums who lost blood in childbirth, blood is an essential part of modern healthcare.

“We need people from Swindon to register today as new blood donors at www.blood.co.uk.

“We particularly need people with blood groups O negative, and A negative to come forward and people from black and South Asian communities.

“Thanks to the generosity of our current donors, hospitals have the blood needed to treat patients and there is not a crisis in blood stocks. But we need more young donors to safeguard blood donation for future generations.”

To sign up as a donor visit www.blood.co.uk or call 0300 123 23 23.

You can support the campaign on Twitter and Facebook, too.