One of the most singularly impactful people in the world has just passed away. Australia resident James Harrison, whose rare donated blood has saved millions of people since the 1950s, is now dead at the age of 88.
Australian Red Cross Lifeblood announced Harrison’s death over the weekend. His blood plasma contained a rare antibody that doctors use to prevent a life-threatening complication in high-risk pregnancies. It’s estimated that Harrison’s donated plasma saved the lives of over two million children in Australia.
“James was a remarkable, stoically kind, and generous person who was committed to a lifetime of giving and he captured the hearts of many people around the world,” said Stephen Cornelissen AM, CEO of Lifeblood, in a statement from the organization.
Harrison’s donation habit was inspired by a harrowing lung problem in his early youth that required surgery and many blood transfusions when he was 14 years old, according to Lifeblood. Wanting to give back, he began to donate his blood at age 18 in 1954, and he never looked back. For the next six decades, Harrison would donate his plasma roughly every three weeks. By the time he retired at the age of 81, Harrison had donated his plasma 1,173 times.
Harrison’s routine was laudable enough for anyone, given how important blood donation is in general. But as fortune would have it, Harrison carried a rare antibody in his plasma known as anti-D. Our red blood cells can carry a certain protein on their surface known as rhesus (RhD). When a pregnant woman with RhD-negative blood is sensitized to RhD-positive blood cells (this usually happens during a previous pregnancy), her body can create antibodies that attack and harm her RhD-positive fetus—a condition called Rhesus disease. But a dose of anti-D given proactively to mothers at risk of Rhesus disease can prevent it from happening in the first place.
While many cases of Rhesus disease are mild, the condition can sometimes cause severe illness or even death in newborns. So Harrison’s prolific donations undoubtedly saved many children throughout his life—at least 2.4 million children, according to Lifeblood. His acts led people to dub him the “Man with the Golden Arm.”
Harrison never complained about his schedule, saying that the donation process didn’t cause him any pain. And he was proud of the role he played in helping people throughout the country, according to his daughter Tracey Mellowship, an anti-D recipient herself.
“It made him happy to hear about the many families like ours, who existed because of his kindness,” Mellowship said in a statement from Lifeblood.
He also hoped that his story would inspire others to follow in his footsteps.
“It was James’ belief that his donations were no more important than any other donors’, and that everyone can be special in the same way that he was,” said Cornelissen. “He leaves behind an incredible legacy, and it was his hope that one day, someone in Australia would beat his donation record.”
