
‘Man with a golden arm': Australian whose rare blood helped save millions of babies dies at 88
According to the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, Harrison, also known as the 'man with a golden arm', had the 'precious antibody in his blood' that was used to make a 'lifesaving medication called Anti-D, given to mothers whose blood is at risk of attacking their unborn babies'.
Harrison died in his sleep at Peninsula Village Nursing Home on the NSW Central Coast on 17 February.
He began donating in 1954 at 18 and continued regularly until his retirement in 2018 at 81. According to Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, he has helped save the lives of more than 2.4 million Australian babies.
Harrison's daughter, Tracey Mellowship, fondly remembered him as a generous soul with a wonderful sense of humour.
'James was a humanitarian at heart, but also very funny,' Ms Mellowship said.
'In his last years, he was immensely proud to become a great grandfather to two beautiful grandchildren, Trey and Addison.
'As an Anti-D recipient myself, he has left behind a family that may not have existed without his precious donations.'
She added: 'He was also very proud to have saved so many lives, without any cost or pain. It made him happy to hear about the many families like ours, who existed because of his kindness.
'He always said it does not hurt, and the life you save could be your own.'
Harrison's rare antibodies were crucial in developing Anti-D, the treatment that has protected millions of newborns from Rhesus disease (or Haemolytic Disease of the Foetus and Newborn) – a condition in which a pregnant woman's blood attacks her unborn baby's red blood cells, potentially leading to brain damage or even death.
It occurs when a mother has RhD-negative blood, while her baby inherits RhD-positive blood from the father. If the mother has been sensitised to RhD-positive blood – often during a previous pregnancy – her immune system may produce antibodies that attack the baby's blood as a foreign threat.
'James was a pioneer of our Anti-D programme. More than 3 million doses of Anti-D containing James' blood have been issued to Aussie mothers with a negative blood type since 1967,' Lifeblood said in a statement on their website.
'He has changed my world and I'm sure he's done that for many other families, making him a very incredible human,' said Rebecca Ind, a recipient of Harrison's blood donations during and after her pregnancy 12 years ago.
In 1999 Harrison was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia – one of the country's most prestigious honours – for his extraordinary dedication to the Lifeblood and Anti-D programme. His kindness leaves a 'remarkable legacy, and he has put the challenge out to the Australian community to beat it', Lifeblood said in the statement.
'I hope it's a record that somebody breaks, because it will mean they are dedicated to the cause,' Harrison said of his last donation at the age of 81.
'It becomes quite humbling when they say, 'oh you've done this or you've done that or you're a hero,'' Harrison said at the time. 'It's something I can do. It's one of my talents, probably my only talent, is that I can be a blood donor.'
At 14, Harrison underwent major chest surgery and relied on the generosity of blood donors to survive. Determined to give back, he vowed to donate as soon as he was eligible – and at 18, he kept his promise, despite a fear of needles.
More than a decade later, doctors discovered that his blood contained a rare antibody essential for producing Anti-D injections. Committed to helping others, Harrison willingly switched to plasma donation, ensuring his contributions could save as many lives as possible.
'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,' Lifeblood chief executive officer Stephen Cornelissen was quoted as saying by Australia's Nine News.
'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.
'James extended his arm to help others and babies he would never know a remarkable 1173 times and expected nothing in return.'
Robyn Barlow, coordinator of Australia's Rh Program – designed to prevent Haemolytic Disease of the Foetus and Newborn (HDFN) – said she had been friends with Harrison for nearly 60 years after first recruiting him as a donor.
'He made my job very easy because he was so keen to donate all the time,' Barlow told 7NEWS.com.au.
'I never had to worry about him – I never had to call and say: 'when you're coming', nothing like that, he was there standing in front of me.'
In an interview with NPR in 2015, Harrison said: 'I was always looking forward to donating, right from the operation, because I don't know how many people it took to save my life.'
Several reports pointed out that doctors were not entirely sure why and how Harrison developed this rare blood antibody, though they suspect it may be linked to the transfusions he received at 14 after his surgery.
'Every batch of Anti-D that has ever been made in Australia has come from James' blood,' Jemma Falkenmire, of the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood (then known as Australian Red Cross Blood Service), told CNN in 2015. 'And more than 17 per cent of women in Australia are at risk, so James has helped save a lot of lives.'
Fewer than 200 people in Australia donate Anti-D, yet their contributions help an estimated 45,000 mothers and babies each year, according to the Australian Red Cross Lifeblood.
Scientists from WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) in Melbourne, in collaboration with Lifeblood, are working on a project called 'James in a Jar' to grow the Anti-D antibody in the lab. Using blood and immune cells from Harrison and other donors, the team has successfully recreated and cultivated the antibody, according to Lifeblood.
This breakthrough could one day help prevent Haemolytic Disease of the Foetus and Newborn, benefiting pregnant women not just in Australia but worldwide, the statement said.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
16 hours ago
- BBC News
'My dad started spying on my mum' - the drugs causing sexual urges
When "Sarah" climbed up into the attic of her father's house - she was completely unprepared for what she would father, "James", was a modest man who worked most of his life for the same company. He retired about 20 years ago when he was diagnosed with Parkinson' had managed the tremors and balance difficulties caused by the disorder by taking a prescription drug called during the Covid-19 pandemic, Sarah had grown increasingly alarmed about her father's secrecy and wanted to see what he had been spending his time the loft, she discovered reams of handwritten notes and a dozen recording devices he had been using to bug his own writing and on tape he had documented innocent sounds his wife had made as she moved around the house, and while she slept, to try to prove she was having an affair. He had also catalogued details of numerous chat lines and porn websites he had been obsessively Sarah told her elderly mother about what she had found, she was horrified to hear that James had also been sexually coercive towards was only when Sarah took him to see his specialist nurse five years ago that she learned the medication her father was on could have such extreme side effects."Oh, he's gone down the randy route, has he?" the nurse couple are now living separately in their old age, because James poses too much of a risk to his wife, says Sarah. James lives in a specialist care home and Sarah says she has been told that he has sexually assaulted staff there."This medication has torn my family apart," says Sarah - whose name we have changed along with her father' has power of attorney for both her parents, including for their medical has carefully weighed their interests in deciding to tell her family's story, she says, but wants people to know about the impact the drugs can have. James's case is one of 50 the BBC has now been contacted about, the majority concerning men being treated for movement disorders whose behaviour changed dramatically after being prescribed medication from a specific family of drugs. Often, behaviour changed after many years of taking the medicines at increasing doses, the men told March, we revealed how women had not been warned by doctors that taking the same type of medication for restless leg syndrome (RLS) could cause them to cruise for sex and gamble compulsively - placing them at personal risk and ruining their finances, careers and of the cases we have now learned of involve the exploitation of women and children. These include: A man who was convicted of child sexual offences after abusing a childAn octogenarian who says he has become addicted to pornography including bestiality and child abuse imagesA father of three children who said the drugs left him needing to have sex up to seven times a day - and caused him to walk out on two marriages when partners could not satisfy him All three men said they had had no previous history of such sexual behaviour before taking the drugs. They also said they felt profound shame about their behaviour but believed the medication helped their men the BBC spoke to said they did not want to take themselves off the drugs because the medication had led them to discover new sexual interests - which are legal and consensual - and because they enjoyed their increased married grandfather in his 60s has begun crossdressing and has entered into online relationships with men. Another man says the drugs disinhibited homosexual feelings he had not previously records show that some of the men we spoke to tried reducing their dosage but all felt it had negatively impacted their Ropinirole that James takes belongs to a family of drugs known as dopamine agonists, which are prescribed for Parkinson's, RLS, pituitary tumours and other risk of impulsive behaviour side effects of dopamine agonist medication have long been known - but the BBC has discovered that doctors are still not warning all patients who have been prescribed the drugs for a variety of conditions. In March we revealed how British drug company GSK had found a link between Ropinirole and what it called "deviant" sexual behaviour - including paedophilia - in told the BBC it had shared these findings with health authorities, included this safety advice in medication leaflets, and conducted extensive trials for the drug which has been prescribed for 17 million warnings about such behaviour were not included in leaflets until 2007 - and, even now, only specify "altered" sexual interest and "excessive" or "increased" libido as advice about the medication's "toxic" side-effects needs to be strengthened immediately because their impact can be "devastating", according to the acting chair of the Health Select Committee, Labour MP Paulette Hamilton."Nine out of 10 people do not read what is on those leaflets," she says."And if you do read it, what does it mean by altered sexual interest? I haven't got a clue." The drugs work by mimicking the effects of dopamine, a natural chemical that helps transmit messages in the brain, such as those governing movement. Dopamine is also known as the "happy hormone" because it is activated when something is pleasurable or we feel agonists can over-stimulate such feelings - helping sufferers of some movement disorders which may be caused by low levels of dopamine. But they can also diminish the appreciation of consequences, leading to impulsive behaviour - according to medication can also actually worsen existing symptoms of restless legs - according to dozens of the people who spoke to the BBC - sometimes causing an uncontrollable urge to move in other parts of the body. This is a well-documented risk for those who take the medication over a prolonged period, and is known as augmentation. If you have more information about this story, you can reach Noel directly and securely through encrypted messaging app Signal on: +44 7809 334720, by email at external or on SecureDrop The BBC has also learned of concerns about two studies that looked at the ability of another dopamine agonist drug - Rotigotine - to tackle such exacerbation of health conditions. Both were sponsored by the drug's manufacturer, Belgian firm have been told that senior officials at the company repeatedly dismissed evidence of augmentation caused by Rotigotine, during the first study in of its authors, Dr Diego Garcia-Borreguero, says UCB staff sat-in on and discussed findings with academics. He says the interference was "subtle", but that the published results were not BBC has also discovered that eight out of nine authors of a second Rotigotine study in 2017 had been paid at some point by UCB - and that five of them were direct company paper's conclusions - that Rotigotine was effective in treating augmentation - are "ridiculous", according to Dr Andy Berkowski, a neurologist who has co-authored clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of RLS in the says data shows that more than 50% of the patients stopped taking the drug during the study largely because of adverse events or a lack of effectiveness - and more than half of those who completed it required an increase in dosage, potentially because of the worsening of their RLS says its studies were unbiased, underwent independent peer review, and that authors who were its employees, or who it had prior affiliations with, fully complied with guidelines on disclosing conflicts of said that Rotigotine's effectiveness was proven in multiple trials and most patients who completed its 2017 study experienced a significant clinical improvement. This corresponds to 37 of the 99 patients who began the study. A list of organisations in the UK offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action Line. Dopamine agonist drugs were prescribed nearly 1.5 million times by GPs alone in England last year, according to published data seen by the drug, Aripiprazole - a partial dopamine agonist used to treat mental health problems - is also known to cause impulsive behaviours. It was prescribed for more than 1.7 million treatments in England alone last year, often to younger patient taking the drug told us his compulsive gambling had become so bad that he was stealing to fund his habit. The mother of another believes the medication caused her son to expose himself in UK's drug safety regulator, the MHRA, says it has no plans to change its warnings about dopamine agonist previously told the BBC that sexual impulses vary and a general warning about activities which may be harmful is Royal College of GPs said its updated curriculum - which is used to train doctors and will be published next month - will now include the monitoring of impulsive behaviour side effects for RLS, thought to affect between 6% to 17% of patients.A side effect can be considered to be "common" when it affects just 1% of the people who take the medicine, according to health guidance body Department for Health and Social Care did not comment.


Metro
a day ago
- Metro
'Failings' in care for cricket legend in the months before he took his own life
There were 'failings' in the care for former England cricketer Graham Thorpe in the months before he took his own life, a coroner has said. The 55-year-oldwas not seen by care professionals in person for over four months, despite them knowing that Thorpe was 'constantly asking for help to end his life'. The cricket star died on the morning of August 4, 2024, after being struck by a train at a railway station in Surrey. Coroner Jonathan Stevens recorded a conclusion of suicide at the inquest but said there had been 'shortcomings' in Thorpe's care. Thorpe 'spiralled into depression' after losing his job as a batting coach in 2022 and had tried to take his own life on another occasion. The coroner said the cricketer was last seen by healthcare professionals in person on March 26, 2024. He missed an appointment with the community mental health team on June 28 that year. That is when the care coordinator, Katie Johnson, spoke to Thorpe's wife Amanda, who reported that her husband was 'constantly asking for help to end his life'. Thorpe later told Johnson himself that he 'didn't see the point of being here' but did not plan on acting on suicidal thoughts. The coroner said 'someone should have gone to see' the 55-year-old to assess him after it was clear he 'found it hard to attend' appointments offered to him. 'Come see me in two weeks' was 'not an appropriate response,' he added. Stevens said that 'protective measures' should have been introduced in June 2024, similar to when Thorpe was given in-patient treatment over suicidal thoughts in May 2023. The inquest heard that those responsible for Thorpe's care judged he was in a 'crisis situation' after learning he had asked his wife 'for help to end his life'. The coroner rejected that, saying: 'I don't accept that when Graham was constantly asking his wife to help him end his life, which was a new presentation… that he was not at that point in crisis.' Stevens added: 'In my judgment there were shortcomings in the care that should have been provided to Graham in the last four months or so of his life.' However the coroner said the evidence did not point to the 'failings' in Thorpe's care being gross, so could not conclude Thorpe would not have died if not for the failings. He added there was no evidence for a finding of neglect. Thorpe's family said they hope the coroner will 'address concerns' regarding the cricketer's care before his death. Their representative said they hope coroner will address the 'shortcomings' so that such a loss 'never happens again'. Thorpe's wife Amanda spoke outside Surrey Coroner's Court with a message to the loved ones of others who struggle with their mental health. She said: 'Reach out for help, and you are not alone. There is help out there. Keep going. Things will get better.' More Trending The inquest heard previously that a leaked video of Tasmanian police breaking up a drinking session between England and Australian cricket players in 2022 was 'blown out of all proportion' and the fallout left Graham 'distraught'. Amanda said it was a 'horrible' time, and the later termination of his employment with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) was 'the 'start of the decline of his mental health'. Thorpe was a mainstay in the England set-up for many years, first as a batter between 1993 and 2005 before spending 12 years in coaching roles. During a distinguished international career, he struck 16 Test hundreds for England, including a debut century against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1993, and represented his country 182 times in all formats. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Coroner rules what really happened to Jay Slater when he died in Tenerife MORE: Ashes drinking video leak caused Graham Thorpe to 'spiral into depression' MORE: Ben Stokes is the leading man as classic England v India Test series produces compelling drama


Daily Record
a day ago
- Daily Record
Veteran broadcaster James Whale shares emotional terminal cancer update as he moves into hospice
James Whale, who has been battling his terminal cancer diagnosis for five years, has now moved into a hospice for end of life care. Veteran broadcaster James Whale has provided an emotional update in his terminal cancer journey after moving into a hospice as he prepares for end of life care. The 74-year-old, who has been battling terminal kidney cancer for five years, was recently told he has just twelve weeks to live. James' cancer has now sadly spread to over 20 tumours in his spine, brain and lungs. The Celebrity Big Brother star, who initially rose to fame in the 1980s as the host of The James Whale Radio Show, moved into a quiet eight-bed hospice near his home in Kent with his wife Nadine Lamont-Brown, earlier this week. James, whose impressive career spans over five decades, first beat kidney cancer in 2000 after being given a 50% chance of survival, but revealed five years ago that the disease had sadly returned. Now into week seven of his life expectancy prognosis, the star has heartbreakingly said: "I'm not me anymore." Speaking on his podcast Tales of the Whales alongside his co-presenter wife Nadine, the pair candidly spoke about James' deteriorating health. The beloved TV personality said he is finding it difficult to breathe, think or talk and added that his hearing is also going downhill. He revealed that his speech has been affected too and that he can be very forgetful while also suffering with the pain of sore pressure sores. During the emotional recording, he told listeners: "I can't breathe, I can't think, I can't talk. "Anyway. Good morning. Welcome to Tales of the Whales, our weekly podcast. I have terminal 5 cancer. Can you get 5?" Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. He continued: "Could I thank everybody for getting in touch and wanting to meet up. "I'm not being rude when I make it difficult to get touched up. I mean... in touch." Nadine replied:'You're getting quite tired, so from next week, we're restricting visitors to just very close friends and family." He added: 'The most tiring thing I found… I still can't hear very well, which is more frustrating than anything else. "I've become very slow in my speech and then forgetful and everything else." Talking about his pressure sores, he said: 'I'm tootling along, which is all you can do really, trying to get my breathing sorted and the mark on my bum.' Humble as ever, he asked: "People have to go through a lot worse, don't they? Do they?" James concluded: "Anyway. I don't feel I can go on much more... The other thing is, my energy levels have gone completely. "So I wish everybody well, and let us hope we go through these phases as quickly as we can." The dad-of-two recently celebrated what is thought to be his last birthday, surrounded by his loved ones. The Talk TV host revealed his long-running programme could soon be coming to an end back in May as he reaches the final stages of his cancer battle. As one of the country's most admired radio personalities, James has had a remarkable career. In 2023 he received the first ever TRIC Recognition Award for his outstanding work and last year he was made an OBE for services to broadcasting and charity. He's also helped countless others too, having launched the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer in 2006, now known as Kidney Cancer UK, which is the nation's leading specialist charity of its kind.