An Australian man named James Harrison, who is referred to as “The Man with the Golden Arm," is credited with saving 2 million lives because of donating blood almost every week.
He’s been doing this for the past six decades and the reasoning he first started stems from an incident he had as a child. Harrison explained he had a chest operation when he was 14 and when he got out of surgery, he spoke to his dad about what saved him.
“He said I had (received) 13 units (liters) of blood and my life had been saved by unknown people. He was a donor himself, so I said when I'm old enough, I'll become a blood donor,” he told CNN.
Harrison is able to donate so much blood and actually save lives because of a rare blood type he has in his right arm which holds life-saving antibodies.
Doctors used his blood to make Vaccine Anti-D, which is then donated to pregnant women who have a blood disease called Rhesus disease. The vaccine helps to eliminate birth complications, thus saving those babies’ lives.
“It makes you feel good yourself that you’ve saved a life there, and you’ve saved many more— and that’s great,” he continued.
Seventeen percent of women are affected by Rhesus disease in Australia and Harrison is the sole donor. He can only donate for a few more years, since the age limit in Australia is age 81, so doctors are looking for more people with this rare blood type to come forward.