THE Government last night banned more than 50,000 people from giving blood amid fears they could be carrying the human form of mad cow disease.

Ministers said anyone who has undergone a blood transfusion since 1980 will be barred from making future donations - but stressed the risk of contracting the disease was slight.

The Government decided to take no chances after doctors revealed in December that a patient died of vCJD, the human version of BSE, after receiving blood from a donor who contracted the disease.

The move was welcomed last night by relatives of North-East vCJD victims.

Kevin Minto, from Sunderland, whose blood donor wife Mandy died of vCJD, said yesterday he had not given blood since she died seven years ago because of his fear he might pass the disease to others.

He said the ban was "probably a wise move".

Mandy was one of 15 out of 143 vCJD victims in the UK who were known to have donated blood before becoming ill.

Mr Minto said: "I used to be a blood donor myself but I don't give blood now - just in case. I don't want to take the chance of passing anything on."

Mandy's mother, Jean Fairbairn, also from Sunderland, said: "Mandy gave blood regularly before she became poorly. She thought she was helping people."

Health Secretary John Reid told MPs that experts had advised a ban on blood donation from anyone who had received a transfusion after January 1980.

He stressed that the link between vCJD and blood transfusion was still "a possibility, not a proven causal connection".

Dr Reid said the ban was being put in place to avoid the "slight risk" of the transmission of vCJD in blood, and that people should continue to have blood transfusions when it was necessary.

Dr Reid called for more people to join the 1.7 million regular donors in the UK - approximately 180,000 of whom live in the North-East - to make sure stocks do not run low.

Dr Angela Robinson, medical director of the National Blood Service, said: "We still need to collect 9,000 donations every day to make sure that patients get the treatments they require.

"I would urge anyone who has not given blood for a while, or who has never given blood, to consider becoming a blood donor."

Frances Hall, of Chester-le-Street, whose son Peter died of vCJD eight years ago, is secretary of the Human BSE Foundation.

She said: "The writing was on the wall when this patient died after a blood transfusion. They had to tighten up the regulations. With this disease we can't afford to take a chance."