An Australian man has been given the nickname the “man with the golden arm” for having donating his extremely rare kind of blood for 56 years and having saved the lives of more than two million babies.
James Harrison, 74, has an antibody in his plasma that stops babies dying from Rhesus disease, a form of severe anaemia. When he started donating, his blood was deemed so special his life was insured for one million Australian dollars.
Mr Harrison has been giving blood every few weeks since he was 18 years old and has now racked up a total of 984 donations. He has enabled countless mothers to give birth to healthy babies, including his own daughter, Tracey, who had a healthy son thanks to her father’s blood.
His blood has since led to the development of a vaccine called Anti-D.