Turning Blood Refusal into Positive Activism

The Liverpool Echo meets up with Rory McGill this week, a gay man working as a Public Health Consultant for Sefton District Council.  Rory spoke of his politicisation at school after being humiliated by the NHS Blood Donation service, where a homophobic doctor told him “We don’t want your blood here”.  Since those days, the NHS has amended its stance on gay and bisexual men donating blood, but many say that the changes are still inadequate and that they still restrict the donations of men who have sex with men whilst allowing any type of promiscuous heterosexuals to donate with impunity.  Today, Rory is also using his experience of poverty growing up in Northern Ireland to improve health outcomes, saying “Being a gay man from a deprived background made me want to help other people like me. When I discovered public health it just clicked. I am determined to be a visible example of someone with relevant lived experience to help shape policies that will benefit population level health.”