'Man with the golden arm has saved 2.4 million babies by donating blood every week for 60 years

Unique disease-fighting antibodies have helped create special injection to help pregnant women

James Harrison, The Man With The Golden Arm (Reuters)

Known as “the man with the golden arm”, James Harrison is estimated to have saved the lives of 2.4 million babies after giving blood almost every week for 60 years.

The 81-year-old Australian has donated more than 1,100 times since turning 21.

Because his blood has unique disease-fighting antibodies, it is used to create an injection which combats rhesus disease – a condition where the blood of pregnant women attacks their unborn babies.

But after reaching the maximum age for donating blood in his him, he is to retire, the country’s Red Cross Blood Service, which made the estimate about how many lives he has saved.

"It becomes quite humbling when they say, 'oh you've done this or you've done that or you're a hero’," said Mr Harrison, who was awarded the Order of Australia, the country's highest honour, in 1999. “It's something I can do. It's one of my talents, probably my only talent, is that I can be a blood donor."

In a separate interview with Australia’s 9News, he added: “I've saved a lot of lives and brought a lot of new kids into the world. So that makes me feel good. I increased the population by so many million, I think."

Mr Harrison, of New South Wales, discovered his blood had unique properties when he had a lung removed, aged just 14.

Doctors found it contained an antibody which could be used to create the life-saving ‘Anti-D’ injections.

So he started making blood plasma donations every week.

"In Australia, up until about 1967, there were literally thousands of babies dying each year, doctors didn't know why, and it was awful,” Jemma Falkenmire, of the Australian Red Cross Blood Service, told CNN in 2015. “Women were having numerous miscarriages and babies were being born with brain damage. Australia was one of the first countries to discover a blood donor with this antibody, so it was quite revolutionary at the time.

"Every bag of blood is precious, but James' blood is particularly extraordinary. Every batch of the life-saving Anti-D that has ever been made in Australia has come from James' blood. And more than 17 per cent of women in Australia are at risk so James has helped save a lot of lives."

Doctors don’t know for certain why Mr Harrison has this rare blood type, but suspect it may have been caused by the transfusions he received after his lung operation.

He is one of fewer than 50 people in Australia known to have the antibodies, the blood service said.

Now he has retired, they are hoping other people will come forward with blood containing similar antibodies.

"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," said Ms Falkenmire.