He’s known as the “Man With the Golden Arm,” because he’s donated blood nearly every week for 60 years.
His name is James Harrison and after all those donations, the 81-year-old Australian “retired” Friday. Australia doesn’t allow blood donations past the age of 81.
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service estimates that he has helped save the lives of more than 2.4 million Australian babies.
Harrison’s blood has unique, disease-fighting antibodies that have been used to develop an injection called Anti-D, which helps fight against rhesus disease.
This disease is a condition where a pregnant woman’s blood actually starts attacking her unborn baby’s blood cells. In the worst cases, it can result in brain damage, or death, for the babies.
Harrison’s remarkable gift of giving started when he had major chest surgery when he was just 14.
Blood donations saved his life, so he pledged to become a blood donor.
He’s quoted as saying, “It becomes quite humbling when they say, ‘oh you’ve done this or you’ve done that or you’re a hero. It’s something I can do. It’s one of my talents, probably my only talent is that I can be a blood donor.”
Now that Harrison has given his last blood donation (in Australia you can’t donate blood past the age of 81). Jemma Falkenmire, of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, and others, hope people with similar antibodies in their blood will step up and donate.
“All we can do is hope there will be people out there generous enough to do it, and selflessly in the way, he’s done,” she said.