LOCAL donors are being celebrated this week for rolling up their sleeves and saving lives, by giving their blood and plasma.
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National Blood Donor Week runs from 14 to 20 June.
More than 100 Tamworth residents, dubbed 'Lifeblood Legends' by the Australian Red Cross, reached the milestone of 50 donations this year.
One of those men is John Clifford, who has given blood and plasma for half a century.
He's made 175 donations - all in Tamworth - starting as a teenager in 1970 and making his 175th on Friday morning.
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"It's a good way of looking after the community that's looked after me all my life, and you never know if you might need it one day," Mr Clifford said.
He remembers hitting the 50 mark and the 100 mark, and was delighted to find a little package sent by Lifeblood containing a tea bag and a biscuit to celebrate his most recent milestone in a socially-distanced way.
Tamworth's Leslie Futcher came in top of the list for the city, with about 400 blood and plasma donations over the past 50 years.
"I started as a young fellow and it's easy to do, to get into a regular routine and I know how beneficial it is to a lot of people," he said.
"I'm lucky to be fit and healthy enough to do it."
Mr Futcher joked that he reckons he has another hundred or so plasma donations left in him.
And younger people are getting into the habit too.
Joe Evans is an emergency doctor at Tamworth hospital, and at just 27 years old, is the youngest person in Tamworth to hit the 50 donations mark this year.
"I figure that if I'm prescribing people blood products, then I should be helping to provide it too," he said.
"It's a really easy thing to do, and it makes you feel good".
In the past year, 9368 donations were taken at Tamworth Lifeblood, including six from recovered COVID-19 patients with precious antibodies.
"In the last 12 months, Australia has faced unparalleled challenges, from devastating bushfires to the coronavirus pandemic, yet one thing has remained consistent; the generosity of our donors," Lifeblood Tamworth Manager Tina Beard said.
National Blood Donor Week runs from 14 to 20 June.
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
Police and crime reporter at the Newcastle Herald.
