Newport poet who wrote in own blood welcomes donor changes

RJ Arkhipov, who grew up in the Christchurch area, said the lifting of the ban is the "overturning of another injustice faced by LGBT+ people."

Mr Arkhipov, 29, gained international acclaim in 2015 when he penned a series of poems using his own blood as ink in a protest against the gay blood donor ban in the United Kingdom, United States and much of Europe.

This collection - Visceral: The Poetry of Blood - was then published by Zuleika on World Blood Donor Day in 2018.

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World Blood Donor Day takes place on June 14 every year, and aims to raise global awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products for transfusion and the critical contribution voluntary, unpaid blood donors make to national health systems.

This year, however, it's also a cause for celebration for many gay and bisexual men who are now allowed to donate for the first time in their lives, thanks to new rules introduced from today.

Across England, Scotland and Wales, the deferral policies which precluded a man from donating blood if they had sex with another man in the past three months have been lifted in favour of an individualised risk-based assessment.

Under the new policy, potential donors will be assessed by their individual risk rather than via the blanket exclusions seen since the 1980s at the advent of the HIV-AIDS epidemic.

RJ Arkhipov's series of poems 'Visceral: The Poetry of Blood' has been reissued to mark the changing of blood donor rules. Picture: RJ Arkhipov

To celebrate this, today, Mr Arkhipov's collection has been reissued in a new paperback edition, with illustrations by French artist Fabien Ghernati.

Mr Arkhipov said: "I welcome the overturning of another injustice faced by LGBT+ people.

"The ban was introduced during a pandemic which, to this day, continues to affect many people, both within and outwith the LGBT+ community.

"In the midst of another pandemic, governments across the United Kingdom announced the discriminatory policy would finally be lifted.

"The NHS needs 400 new donors a day to keep up with demand and the lifting of the ban not only rights an historic wrong, it will also go some way to ensuring much-needed blood can save lives."

Visceral: The Poetry of Blood is available online and from most bookshops from today.