A teenager who has received more than 800 blood transfusions to keep her alive is pleading with Oxford residents to help a struggling donor centre stay open.

Sarah Cross, 18, is worried that poor attendance at regular National Blood Service sessions held at Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre in Pegasus Road could threaten the sessions' future.

Donated blood is vital for Miss Cross, of Hunters Close, Wantage, who suffers from primary immune deficiency, meaning her body does not produce infection-fighting white blood cells. She survives by having two transfusions of the blood component plasma every week.

Miss Cross, a shop assistant, said: "I started having transfusions when I was 11, and before that I used to be very ill with chest infections and sores and used to get pneumonia a lot.

"If I don't get the plasma my life could be put at risk, but with it I lead a normal life and that's down to the people who give blood.

"The Blackbird Leys session would be a real loss if it closed. People who do use it may not be able to get to other sessions, so they could stop donating altogether."

Blackbird Leys Community Centre is one of eight places in Oxford where donors regularly give blood.

At sessions -- held every three months -- about 120 to 140 people usually each give a unit of blood, which is just under a pint.

At Blackbird Leys, an average of 69 people attend every time, but during a session in June, only 39 turned up.

The sessions used to be well attended but it is thought the area's working families now find it inconvenient to go to them. The National Blood Service is looking at ways to change the trend, and could start holding them at the weekend instead.

Julie Preston, of NBS Oxford, said: "Unless more donors come to give blood at Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre there is a real risk the session will close.

"No-one knows when it might be a member of their family who needs a blood transfusion and it really does help save lives."

Miss Cross added: "Blood donors help a lot of people and what they do is very important. There's such a shortage of supplies we need as many donors as possible."