Blood was born and raised in Belfast and worked in a linen mill from 1952 to 1990 where she became an active member of the trade union and a shop steward. She was involved in creating the women's committee in the trade union and promoting equality for women at work. Since 1994, she has been an Information Officer of the Greater Shankill Partnership and is a founding member of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition. In 1998, she was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Ulster and was awarded a life peerage as Baroness Blood, of Blackwatertown in the County of Armagh in 1999. She was the first woman in Northern Ireland to be given a life peerage. She also received an honorary DUniv from the Queen's University of Belfast in 2000 and the Open University in 2001.